A well known youth soccer coach in Portland is facing the horrific charge that he raped and sexually abused a 16-year-old girl who he was coaching.
According to Oregon CBS affiliate KOIN, Portland FOX affiliate KPTV, Oregon Live and a handful of other Portland area outlets, 26-year-old Dean Fowell was arrested on charges of rape and sexual abuse on Saturday immediately after he finished coaching a soccer match at a high school in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Powell was arraigned on Monday and has a preliminary court appearance set for Tuesday, Feb. 21.
As soon as the charges were announced, F.C. Portland, the elite private soccer club where Fowell had served as a coach, suspended the English national pending the outcome of his trial.
"We're shocked by the allegations," F.C. Portland executive director Joe Wedding told KOIN. "He won't coach again if convicted."
KPTV reported that Fowell's teenage victim claimed the two had an ongoing sexual relationship for two years before she finally admitted the illicit relationship to her parents and told authorities. Equally troubling, when he was questioned about the incident Fowell reportedly confessed to a relationship with at least one other teenaged female soccer player.
The charges will come as a shock to the Portland soccer community, in which the London native had emerged as a rising coaching star. In addition to his work with F.C. Portland, Fowell had served as a volunteer boys soccer coach at Hillsboro (Ore.) High and was helping build up the Portland Timbers Regional Training Center in conjunction with the city's wildly popular MLS club.
Now all those pursuits -- not to mention Fowell's visa -- will be put on hold while he answers to serious charges against him that could leave him behind bars instead of on the soccer pitch, where so many have grown accustomed to seeing him in recent years.
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