Former Hamilton teacher, baseball coach pleads guilty to sexual offences
A former Hamilton elementary school teacher and baseball coach has admitted to child luring and sexually touching two children under the age of 14 in separate incidents between the early 1990s and his 2021 arrest.
In February, John Hashimoto, now 59, pleaded guilty to a single count of child luring following his arrest by Halton Regional Police in March 2021.
According to an agreed statement of facts read by assistant Crown attorney Mike Godinho, a Halton officer in the internet child exploitation unit posed as a 14-year-old boy on the LGBTQ social networking app Grindr under the username teendscreet."
Hashimoto, using the name David and claiming to be 46, began communicating with the apparent 14-year-old, including asking him about school and later admitting to liking younger males because they have less emotional baggage."
The conversation turned to text messages in which Hashimoto pressed to meet in person for sexual purposes and agreed to bring the teen alcohol to calm his nerves." During the first arranged meeting, Hashimoto was observed by police waiting in a park for 45 minutes. When the teen didn't show he arranged for a second meeting at an Oakville park with a plan to then go to the teen's grandparents house. Hashimoto was arrested at the park and found to have a dozen assorted cans of a vodka drink in his bag. His phone still had the messages and picture exchanges, Godinho said.
That case was expected to resume for sentencing April 27 in Burlington, however, sentencing was delayed after Hamilton charges were transferred to the Halton court. There, Hashimoto pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference involving victims who were under 14.
Hashimoto admitted to sexually touching two boys in separate incidents between September 1991 and June 1993 and between June 2000 and August 2003. The victims came forward to police in recent years.
According to an agreed statement of facts read by Godinho, in 1992-93 Hashimoto was a teacher at Dr. J.E. Davey Elementary School in downtown Hamilton, where he touched a 10-year-old boy while reviewing school work.
The touching wasn't accidental and was for a sexual purpose," Godinho said.
Later Hashimoto signed the boy up for soccer and sexually touched him at Hashimoto's house where they stopped on their way to soccer.
In the second incident, Hashimoto was a volunteer baseball coach and befriended a player while the boy was between 12 and 13, including taking him and other children on fishing trips. On one occasion the boy slept over at Hashimoto's house and woke to Hashimoto touching him.
Hashimoto hid behind the couch and crawled away. The boy pretended to sleep while trying to come up with a plan. In the morning Hashimoto acted as if nothing had happened.
The Spectator previously reported that Hashimoto retired in 2019 after a nearly 30-year teaching career with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, where, in addition to Dr. Davey, he taught at Billy Green Elementary School, Queensdale Elementary School and Sherwood Secondary School.
Hashimoto was involved with the Hamilton Cardinals Rep Baseball Association, as a coach evaluator through Baseball Ontario and a master coach developer and evaluator for Baseball Canada. He was suspended after his arrest. He also worked with the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Academy from 2006 to 2020.
He returns to court Aug. 10 for sentencing submissions.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com