‘Makes me feel dirty’: Tearful courtroom hears victim impact statements in Markus Hicks case

WARNING: This article mentions​ ​​​sexual violence.

It was an emotional morning in a packed St. John’s courtroom Thursday, as some of the victims of former St. John's volleyball coach and teacher Markus Hicks outlined the lasting effects the crimes have had on them.

“This whole situation will stick with me for the rest of my life,” one victim read from his statement.

“Since this day, the trust that I’ve had will never come back.”

Hicks, who’s in his 30s, used dozens of social media accounts to lure young men to his home and sexually assault them.

At the end of June, Hicks pleaded guilty to 54 charges, including 13 counts of sexual assault, six counts of luring a child, using a disguise, possessing and accessing child pornography, sexual exploitation and breach of trust.

Police started investigating Hicks in August 2023 after a man had reported that his son had accepted offers for oral sex through messaging app Snapchat at the address of Hicks’s Paradise home.

A search warrant found a curtain setup, as well as several computers and phones.

According to the agreed statement of facts, over 34,000 photos and 11,400 videos showing potential child sexual abuse were found across those devices.

Those who came forward about their experiences with Hicks are protected by a publication ban and can’t be named, but many of them were students or trusted Hicks, who was in a position of power as a teacher, volleyball coach and referee.

While Hicks was brought from the Bishop’s Falls Correctional Centre to provincial court in St. John’s to hear the victims’ statements in person, he didn’t show any visible reaction to them.

Three of the statements were read by Crown attorney Mark James, while the other half was presented by the victims themselves, and all of them described how their trust had been broken forever.

A statement James read on behalf of the mother of a victim said that Hicks was someone her child had looked up to, and she believed to be a positive influence.

Meanwhile, her statement continued, Hicks pursued his own “unspeakably grotesque intentions.”