FORT WORTH, Texas — A former gymnastics coach was sentenced Friday for sexually assaulting young female gymnasts in North Texas and Oklahoma, the Tarrant Count Criminal District Attorney’s Office says.
Skipper Glenn Crawley, 53, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Crawley coached at Sokol Gymnastics in Fort Worth when he was accused of sexually assaulting three girls during practice.
Crawley was arrested in August 2019 and after that, several adult victims came forward with claims Crawley assaulted them when they were gymnasts in Norman and Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 90s.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the victims at Tulsa World Gymnastics were as young as eight, and Crawley would touch them under their leotards.
Crawley was initially charged for assaulting 11 girls in Texas and Oklahoma.
After learning of charges against him, Crawley fled Texas and was later arrested in Indiana.
The district attorney's office says many of Crawley’s victims were in court during his sentencing and shared “emotional and inspiring statements about their own personal experiences.”
“They were all children who dreamed of being Olympians, and believed the defendant would help them get there. He used his position of authority to isolate them, and used their dreams against them,” prosecutor Darren DeLaCruz said, in a release.
