Convicted sex offender charged

Robert Bridgeman, a twice-convicted sex offender and former high school teacher, had his visit to Niagara Falls extended Saturday when Niagara Regional Police charged the Pickering man with luring a young person over the Internet to a Niagara Falls hotel to have sex.

The 52-year-old former Canadian Football League player appeared in a St. Catharines courtroom Sunday morning where a justice of the peace ordered him to remain in custody until Wednesday, giving him time to contact a lawyer before having a bail hearing.

Once a highly regarded football coach at a London high school, Bridgeman wore a black T-shirt with a sports company logo embroidered on its neckline, blue jeans and just socks on his feet as he stood in the prisoner box during Sunday morning's bail court session. He's fairly tall with a medium build. His hair is short and greyer than it appeared in newspaper pictures taken a decade ago.

Bridgeman and duty counsel W.J. Garry Bracken spoke in hushed voices as they conferred about when he would make his next court appearance.

Justice of the peace Bruce Phillips imposed a publication ban on the victim's identity, banned Bridgeman from contacting the victim or witnesses while in custody, and banned the media from reporting evidence submitted during the bail hearing.

Niagara Regional Police arrested Bridgeman Saturday. They charged him with luring a child and sexual interference.

The charges resulted from an investigation by Niagara Falls detectives and the Internet child exploitation unit whose members were looking into information about a man using the Internet to lure a young person to a Niagara Falls hotel for sex.

Their investigation led to police to a hotel where officers seized what was described as "sexual paraphernalia" and a computer. Police allege the man had on two other occasions visited Niagara Falls, rented a hotel room and had sexual encounters with the youth.

Police did not disclose the age of the alleged victim, whether the young person was a boy or girl, where he or she is from, or which hotel the incidents are alleged to have taken place.

The police statement described Bridgeman as a "convicted sex offender," but did not elaborate.

But the London Free Press published a dozen stories between 2000 and 2004 about Robert William Bridgeman, a former high school teacher and football coach in London, who was convicted of sexual assault and gross indecency against a boy, a family friend, who was under 18. The crimes occurred between 1983 and 1989.

The Free Press reported Bridgeman was 42 when he was charged in 2000. When he was prosecuted for the London incidents, he was working in Pickering at St. Mary Catholic school.

In March 2002, he was sentenced to 18 months. An appeal of those convictions was unsuccessful.

In May 2002, Bridgeman faced more charges for similar offences between 1985 and 1986 -- against a student at the school where he taught. In 2003, he was convicted of gross indecency in the second case and sentenced to four months in jail.

In 2004, the Ontario College of Teachers, which regulates the profession, revoked his licence to teach, denying him the chance to reapply until 2014, according to QMI Agency stories.