A five-month-long investigation has led to the arrest of a British Columbia man in connection with a historic sexual assault in Peterborough, police said on Thursday.
According to the Peterborough Police Service, in August 2021, police launched an investigation following information received from a male complainant alleging sexual assault in the 1980s.
The investigation led to the issuance of a Canada-wide warrant on January 7 for the arrest of one man.
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On January 17, RCMP in BC arrested the man on the basis of the warrant and he was returned to Ontario.
Gary Bratty, 65, was charged with sexual assault, indecent assault on a man, solicitation for sexual assault and sexual assault.
He was detained and would appear in court in Peterborough on Thursday for a bail hearing, police said Thursday afternoon.
Canada’s Gary Bratty was selected for the weightlifting team, but did not participate in the boycott 1980 Moscow Olympics.
The Canadian Press file
Police believe there are still victims who have yet to come forward.
Police say Bratty was a professional weightlifter and trained young people through the 1980s and 1990s. He was also named as Canada’s 1980 Summer Olympics team, but did not participate in the Games held in Moscow, Russia.
Bratty was also associated with Big Brothers of Hamilton in the early 1980s and during this time in Hamilton trained “numerous youths” in weightlifting, police say.
They also say he worked in provincial corrections from 1980 to 1989 at the Toronto, Peterborough and Ottawa facilities. In 1990, Bratty moved to BC, where he lived in the Vancouver and Burnaby areas and coached weightlifting at a university in the Lower Continent.
The police encourage anyone with information to det. const. L. White of Peterborough Police at 705-876-1122 ext. 285.
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