Ex-Baseball Coach Charged With Sexually Abusing 7 Kids In US

A former baseball coach at a private school in Brooklyn has been accused of sexually abusing seven boys, including kids as young as 12. Coach Nicolas Morton allegedly even threatened to evict boys from the baseball team if they did anything about his advances. According to information made public along with a 20-count sex crime indictment against him in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the 31-year-old, who worked at Packer Collegiate Institute, grabbed the genitalia of at least three of those boys.

Morton faces charges ranging from sex abuse to sexual misconduct with a child under 13 years old and forcibly touching kids' intimate parts.

The boys, aged 12 to 14, exposed their coach after getting fed up with Morton's alleged sadistic behaviour, according to Gwen Barnes of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau, reported the New York Post.

Morton appeared handcuffed, with a bath towel draped over his wrists, in a Brooklyn courtroom for the hearing. At least 15 of his friends and family members were in the audience.

Barnes highlighted the bravery of the children and told a judge during Morton's arraignment on October 24 that the boys came “forward and stood up for themselves and each other.” All the boys played on Morton's private travel team, NYC Freedom Baseball.

As Barnes revealed a list of accusations against Morton, the coach stood silent, head down. Barnes said that Morton jokingly started making perverted requests of his players at the Brooklyn Heights K-12 school, Packer Collegiate, along with hard workouts that he used as leverage to fulfil his leering desires. “He groomed them by speaking about sex and masturbation and other graphic topics,” Barnes said, adding, “It got to the point he would threaten that they wouldn't make the team when they didn't show him their pubic hair, and sometimes he would insist on seeing their penises.”

Morton was also accused of groping players, some of whom he had been coaching since they were as young as 11. These incidents reportedly involved touching both above and underneath their clothing, and over their underwear, according to Barnes.

Morton's defence attorney, Robert Geor, unsuccessfully attempted to secure his client's release without bail. He argued that Morton “comes from a law enforcement family,” highlighting connections to the Nassau Police Department and the NYPD's 111 precinct in Bayside. The judge established bail at $75,000, with Georges stating that his client's father intended to cover the amount.

The next hearing date has been set for December 13.