Judge Revokes Bail For Accused Child Predator From Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The private hockey coach and former Marblehead resident accused of sexually abusing Massachusetts boys between the ages of 7 and 13 will remain in jail at least until his trial in Essex County concludes. Christopher Prew, 33, had been released on bail with the instruction he needed to surrender to a warrant on similar charges in Vermont. Prew failed to meet last week's deadline and was arrested n Friday.

On Monday, a Salem Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler revoked his bail. Drechsler had been forced to grant Prew bail earlier this month following a pair of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decisions that found state law does not allow people accused of crimes to be held without bail if those crimes do not involve overt physical force.

Turning himself in on the Vermont warrant was one of the conditions of release a judge set for Prew when he released him on bail as he awaits trial on charges of one count of aggravated rape of a child, 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of attempted indecent assault and battery on child under 14.

Prew's release prompted Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett to renew calls for changes in state law. Blodgett has long been warning that the SJC decisions were inevitable, and that the state legislature needs to step in to fix what he sees as a loophole in state law.

Gov. Charlie Baker has filed two bills aimed at doing just that. That bill, which has been in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary since January, would add sex offenses involving children to the list of crimes in which a person can be held without bail.

Prew is accused of sexually assaulting seven boys across Essex County. Prosecutors say most of the allegations took place between Jan. 1, 2017 and Feb. 5, 2018. Prew has also been indicted for molesting a boy in Newton.

Prew, who provided private and group coaching sessions out a hockey company he co-owns, was initially accused of indecently assaulting and orally raping a 9-year-old boy on various dates between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31, 2018. Marblehead police began investigating Prew after the boy told his mother of the alleged assaults, officials said.

Prew's attorney said at the time of the first indictment that Prew had been "intimately involved with the mother of the child" and expected his client to be vindicated.