Ron Gorman: Wrestling Coach Arrested On More Than 500 Charges In Child Rape Case

The town of Marietta, Georgia was shocked when a local youth wrestling coach was charged with raping at least two of his former athletes. Police investigators fear more child rape victims could come forward with similar allegations as the case moves forward.

“The charges that have been lodged against Mr. Gorman speak for themselves. He is just not safe for the community,” Julieane Fry, the Monroe County Assistant District Attorney, said.

Ron Gorman, 51, allegedly rape two boys between the ages of 10 and 13. The married wrestling coach has been charged with 513 counts related to the case, including rape of a child, corruption of a minor, and statutory sexual assault.

Ron Gorman pictures,is facing 513 charges including rape of a child https://t.co/yJl73ws0Gs pic.twitter.com/iaNiLr3bJO

— infowe (@infowe) April 6, 2017

The child sexual abuse case dates all the way back to 2006. At the time, Gorman was working as a youth wrestling coach in the town of East Stroudsburg in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Law enforcement officers in the state began looking into Ron Gorman last September after child rape allegations were raised against him, according to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The youth wrestling coach moved to Georgia eight years ago. He was transported back to Pennsylvania after the two young men who maintain the youth wrestling coach raped them came forward with their claims. Prior to moving south in 2009, Gorman was working for a wrestling program in the Poconos.

Monroe County police officials revealed the youth wrestling coach had 261 counts levied against him pertaining to just one of the young boys he allegedly raped. Gorman faces an additional 252 charges related to the second known victim in the case.

Ron Gorman is facing over 300 charges in Monroe county. We’ll have details about the case on @69News at 6. pic.twitter.com/KSn7yfWuzN

— Will Lewis (@WillLewisWFMZ) March 22, 2017

The two alleged child rape victims are now both 20 years old and from East Stroudsburg. According to court documents shared by WNEP, the young men said the wrestling coach sexually abused them as children in multiple locations, including the home of Ron Gorman and in hotel rooms; some of which may have been out of the state of Pennsylvania.

According to one of the alleged victims, Gorman flew him down to Georgia so he could continue the sexual abuse. The young man also told police officers the coach sexually assaulted him for three years.

If the unidentified man’s story is true, Gorman sent him money to coax him to make sexually explicit videos shared via Snapchat. The same alleged victims also stated the wrestling coach used Facebook to message him and said once that he “loves him so much it hurts.”

The second alleged victim in the child rape case told law enforcement officers he had grown up with a “poor home life” and was made to feel like a “part of the family” at the home of the wrestling coach. Pennsylvania State Trooper Brian Noll wrote in his report that the young man said Gorman would take him out to restaurants to eat dinner with the family and also take him to hotel rooms for the sexual assault.

The first time the youth wrestling coach allegedly sexually abused victim number two, his own children were sleeping nearby, according to the police report. The sexual assault allegedly ended when the boy turned 15 years old. During interviews with the police, the young man said Ron Gorman still used Facebook to send him sexually explicit messages while his wife was asleep.

Through his attorney, Gorman has maintained his innocence and plans to fight the child rape and related charges levied against him.

“The indications are that this is a gentleman who was nothing but a fantastic role model for the vast majority of children for the last 30-plus years and the amount of digging that had to be done by the commonwealth to find two people to say something not of that nature or character is significant,” Brett Riegel, the defense attorney for the youth wrestling coach, said.

The Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney is urging any other victims to come forward. Fry said she believes there could be more victims, and her office and detectives will respect their privacy if they too want to file a complaint against Gorman.

The pending child rape case is not the only time the wrestling coach has been accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with children. In 2011, a Cobb County, Georgia mom called the authorities after discovering messages between the coach and her son, who was a member of the wrestling team. Gorman had been employed as the Pope High School wrestling coach, according to WSB-TV. The mother told local reporters she did not feel local officials fully looked into the disturbing message as much as they could have.

Again in 2015, Ron Gorman was accused of inappropriate behavior with a minor. A complaint was received by Cherokee County police officers stating the wrestling coach had solicited a child under the age of 16 for sex. The case was dropped, police officials said.

Ron Gorman was the Life University in Marietta Wrestling Director until late February of this year. He was fired from the position. Why he was fired remains unknown. University officials claim they did not know about the child rape investigation and had not received any complaints about the coach during his employment.

The wrestling coach has so far been unable to raise the $1 million bond set in the case. He is currently incarcerated at the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

[Featured Image by Diego Barbieri/Shutterstock]