ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. – A well-known California water polo coach was sentenced to prison on Friday for sexually assaulting nine female teenage athletes over the course of several years.
Irvine resident Bahram Hojreh, 46, was sentenced to 18 years and four months after he was found guilty in November of sexually assaulting nine teenage girls he trained and assaulting a tenth athlete over a five-year period from 2012 to 2017, KTLA reported.
Hojreh was convicted by an Orange County jury in November on 22 felony counts including sexual battery, sexual penetration, and lewd acts on a child. The victims were between the ages of 13- and 17-years-old, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said many of Hojreh’s sexual assaults occurred underwater during pool training sessions at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Since the crimes occurred underwater, parents observing the physically demanding sport from the poolside remained unaware.
The victims said the illicit touching went far beyond the normal contact of the sport. They said Hojreh “touched their breasts, twisted their nipples, touched their genitals above and below their swimsuits and digitally penetrated them underwater during coaching sessions — actions he explained were to “toughen them up for competition.”
Hojreh was a coach at the International Water Polo Club in Los Alamitos in addition to Kennedy High School in the nearby city of La Palma, according to KTLA.
Hojreh’s reputation as an accomplished coach gave athletes hope he would be the “key” to fulfilling their athletic dreams. However, their dreams became a nightmare of abuse, Law Officer reported.
A dozen female players who were victimized by Hojreh were awarded nearly $14 million after settling a lawsuit against USA Water Polo and a California club in June 2021.
Hoireh was already in custody at the time of his sentencing.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer previously issued a statement following the conviction.
“These young women will spend the rest of their lives trying to forget these abhorrent moments of their childhood because someone they thought they could trust turned out to be a pedophile,” Spitzer said. “The wounds these young girls suffered at the hands of this monster may not be visible, but they are very, very real and they are scars that they will carry with them forever. My heart breaks for each one of these victims and for their parents who did everything they could to help their children achieve their athletic dreams and instead had to learn the painful truth that their daughters had been molested right in front of them – and there was nothing they could do to protect them. Thankfully, these brave girls had the courage to speak up about the abuse and prevented additional girls from being molested.”
