Former coach sentenced for abusing multiple girls

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man will spend at least 50 years behind bars for sexually assaulting numerous girls while working as a gymnastics and dance coach in metro Grand Rapids.

Shannon Guay, 51, was sentenced Wednesday on 22 counts — 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping — by 17th Circuit Court Judge Paul Denenfeld.

Denenfeld sentenced Guay to between 25 and 37.5 years for each of two counts of criminal sexual conduct. These sentences will run consecutively.

For the remaining 19 counts of CSC and one count of kidnapping, Guay received concurrent sentences, none of which exceeded 37.5 years.

“I’m in my 16th year of being a judge. I’ve certainly handled lots and lots of criminal cases, and I’ve certainly handled lots of criminal sexual conduct cases,” Denenfeld said at sentencing. “This is right up at the top of the list. The number of victims that are here in this case, the age of many of these victims when they were being sexually assaulted, Mr. Guay’s position of having access to many of these young people of various ages … makes this case, I think, different maybe even than any other case that I’ve had. … I think this case probably presents as much harm and damage as any case that I have presided over.”

Some survivors told the court “they still haven’t gotten over” Guay’s actions, Denenfeld said.

“God help us, hopefully they will at some point, but they may not ever be able to get over this kind of trauma,” the judge said.

Multiple victim impact statements were presented Wednesday morning.

“How dare you have stolen from me something so pure and innocent that it rerouted my identity?” one survivor said in a statement, which was read aloud in court by Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett. “You traumatized me, altered my brain pathways and damaged the little girl with a bright smile and enduring spirit.”

Another survivor said that she has “been weighed down by shame for (her) entire life.”

“I felt dirty, used, worthless, unlovable,” she said.

The survivor said she met Guay as a young child and he manipulated her and her family.

“Because of the trust that I had in the defendant starting from such a young age and then his deep betrayal of that trust, I have had a severely warped view of the world and the people in it. I have always had issues connecting with people and have had very few close relationships of any sort in my life,” she said. “I feel like I’ve just been holding on for dear life, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Addressing Guay directly, she said, “You stole so many things from me, important, valuable, irreplaceable things: my childhood, my innocence, my sense of safety and security. … I am so glad I no longer keep your secret. It has been a freedom I didn’t know I was missing out on all of these years.”

A jury in April found Guay guilty of 21 counts of CSC and one count of kidnapping. In all, 14 victims were identified; they ranged in age from 4 to 15 at the time of the assaults, more than 15 years ago.

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