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 a minimum of 25 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. That all means Guay will spend a minimum of 50 years in prison, the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed.

Guay would be 101 by the time he could get out of prison. He is expected to file an appeal.

The sentence is justice for more than a dozen women who say their childhood, sense of safety and security and happiness were stripped away by their own coach.

“You cannot hurt us anymore,” one of the survivors said during sentencing. “Cannot keep us silent anymore.”

At least 14 women say they were sexually assaulted by Guay when they were between the ages of 4 and 15 years old. Four survivors spoke during Wednesday’s sentencing.

“I can’t drive through (Grand Rapids) without constantly being reminded about what you did to me,” one survivor said. “Every movie theater, every gym, every park, every bookstore and coffee shop, every mall, every parking lot, every place that my memories are stained, I can barely breathe.”

Guay worked at multiple gymnastics, martial arts and dance studios in metro Grand Rapids and out of state. It wasn’t until May 2023 that Guay was arrested in Florida after a woman came forward. It led to numerous other women breaking their silence, saying they were also assaulted. The survivors say they held their pain in for decades.

“None of it should have been put on me to carry,” one said. “I was just a child, just trying to survive.”

Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett read another survivor’s statement in court.

“How dare you have stolen from me something so pure and innocent that it rerouted my identity?” the survivor said. “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.”

A jury in April found Guay guilty of 21 counts of CSC and one count of kidnapping. He and his defense denied many of the allegations. After hearing the survivors’ stories, Guay was given a chance to speak Wednesday morning.

“No thanks,” Guay told the judge.

Prosecutors, citing the number of survivors and the magnitude of their suffering, asked the judge to take the unusual step of imposing two consecutive sentences, resulting in the minimum sentence of more than 50 years.

Denenfeld agreed, saying that in 16 years of being a judge, “this case probably presents as much harm and damage as any case that I have presided over.”

“This is right up at the top of the list,” he said. “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.”

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.

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