Assemblywoman Markey brings the Child Victims Act to Albany once again

From the Legislative Gazette :

Chris Gavagan, a filmmaker and documentarian, spoke of the abuse he experienced as a child from his roller hockey coach. "I was here last year … The fact that we're having this conversation again is a catastrophic failure," Gavagan said. "If your child had a one in five chance of getting hit by a car today, you'd be spending every moment of every legislative session fighting for stop signs, for speed bumps, for lower speed limits, for traffic lights. Yet when the odds are exactly the same of your child falling victim to a sexual predator, your inaction gives nothing but green lights to those who seek to prey on children."

Brooklyn filmmaker Chris Gavagan, Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey support Child Victims Act

Coached into Silence director Chris Gavagan featured in this New York Daily News article, covering his support for statute of limitation reform. ————————————————————————————————————

A Brooklyn filmmaker who is making a documentary about sexual abuse in youth sports says the statute of limitations that limits prosecution of sexual abuse encourages offenders to prey on children.

Chris Gavagan, whose still-in-production “Coached into Silence” includes an interview with a coach he says abused him when he was a teenager, spoke at a press conference in Albany on Tuesday to promote the Child Victims Act. The bill, sponsored by Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, would extend the civil and criminal limitations for sexual abuse and give previous victims a window to bring civil suits against sexual offenders.

“The reality is that these predators will feed for a lifetime on our children,” Gavagan said. “And the short statute of limitations in our state guarantees 30, 40, 50 more years of children - our children, your children - as prey. A generation of children that could so easily have been spared.

“I have been forced to watch as my own abuser, a coach with direct and easy access to a hundred children a year for decades, found his next victim, and his next victim,” Gavagan added.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/brooklyn-filmmaker-chris-gavagan-queens-assemblywoman-margaret-markey-support-child-victims-act-article-1.147614#ixzz1xLO61lqB