Montco Man, Ex-Youth Hockey Coach, Assaulted Boys Across South Jersey: Prosecutor

LANSDALE, PA — A former youth hockey coach from Lansdale previously charged with the sexual assault of 12-year-old boy in Gloucester County has been additionally charged with the sexual assault of a different boy in Burlington County, authorities said on Thursday.

Walter W. Ferinden, 56, has been charged with second-degree criminal sexual contact with a boy in Shamong Township in 1992, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office announced. The boy at the center of these charges is not the same boy Ferinden is alleged to have assaulted in Deptford Township in 1994. The new case is expected to be prosecuted in Gloucester County.

Ferinden was arrested in March on the Deptford Township charges, and has been on electronic monitoring and was required to surrender his passport. Ferinden was living in Deptford Township in 1994, and the boy he is initially accused of assaulting played organized youth hockey.

Ferinden is also charged in New Castle, Delaware with nine counts of second-degree unlawful sexual contact with minors.

Through the 1990s and as recently as 2010, Ferinden coached youth hockey and conducted skating clinics in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Vermont.

Anyone with information on this case or who believes they know someone possibly victimized by Walter Ferinden is asked to contact Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office Det. Gregory Malesich at 856-384-5626.

New Castle detectives believe there may be more victims and are asking anyone with information pertaining to their investigation to contact Det. Escheman at 302-395-2745 or via e-mail at JCEscheman@nccde.org.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Anthony Bellano

Patch file photo