Youth Coach Guilty in Molestation Case

A jury has found a former youth baseball and hockey coach with connections to New Hampshire and Maine guilty of sexual exploitation and child pornography charges in U.S. District Court of New Hampshire.

Robert Joubert, 60, of Manchester, was found guilty of three counts of sexual exploitation and one of child pornography on Nov. 8, according U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas.

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The most recent investigation into Joubert started in 2012 after a police department in Maine received an email about past allegations of inappropriate contacts with children in New Hampshire. Joubert was working at the Seacoast Baseball Academy in York, Maine, at the time, and previously worked for a sports academy in Newington. He also lived and coached children in Concord and surrounding communities.

The investigation involved “numerous young men” who reported allegations of sexual assault by Joubert, as far back as the late 1980s. 

A search of his property in June 2012 revealed photographs of young boys and one videotape of a victim, who is now an adult and didn't know of the video recording. The victim later offered testimony in the case.

“This defendant is a quintessential predator,” Kacavas said in a statement. “He deliberately sought out and insinuated himself into the lives of the most vulnerable young boys, gaining their trust by portraying himself as a coach and father figure. He then betrayed that trust by sexually exploiting those boys to produce child pornography.”

Kacavas said finding and prosecuting “predators like the defendant” would continue to be “among the highest priorities of my office.”

Joubert will be sentenced in February 2014 and also faces more criminal charges in Hillsborough and Merrimack counties, according to Kacavas.