Youth hockey coach accused of sexually assaulting boys nabbed in Winthrop after failing to surrender to VT police

WINTHROP, MASS. (WHDH) - A former Marblehead youth hockey coach accused of sexually assaulting eight boys under the age of 14 was arrested Friday in Winthrop after missing a deadline to turn himself over to police in Vermont on an active warrant, police said.

Christopher Prew, 33, was nabbed at a home on Shirley Street after failing to appear in a Vermont court on Thursday to answer to separate child sexual assault charges in that state, according to Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio.

When Prew did not surrender, Procopio says a warrant for his arrest was obtained from Essex Superior Court.

Prew has already been indicted in Massachusetts for one count of rape of a child aggravated by the age difference, 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of attempted indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

The victims are boys between the ages of 7 and 13, according to authorities.

Prew was released on $15,000 cash bail at a hearing in Salem Superior Court last week after a judge ruled he could no longer be held without bail under the state’s dangerousness statute.

He is slated to be arraigned Friday in Essex Superior Court as a fugitive from justice before being extradited to Vermont.

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