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Figure Skater Claims Former Partner, Who Killed Himself Earlier This Year, Sexually Abused Her For Two Years
“I’m sorry but john hurt at least 10 people including me,” Bridget Namiotka said of her former skating partner John Coughlin, who hung himself in January.
U.S. figure skater Bridget Namiotka says her one-time partner John Coughlin, who killed himself in January, sexually abused her for two years.
“I’m sorry but john hurt at least 10 people including me,” she wrote on Facebook over the weekend. “He sexually abused me for 2 years. Nobody innocent hangs themself [sic].”
Coughlin, 33, was found dead a month after he was put on restricted eligibility by US Center for SafeSport, an organization that investigates both bullying and physical and sexual abuse in sports, the New York Post reports. He was reportedly being investigated on allegations of abuse.
“Think about all the girls he hurt,” Namiotka wrote in another post on Sunday. In another she wrote, “Grooming happens. It happened to me and he hurt a lot of girls. Think about the victims.”
Her comments and posts were in response to a now-deleted link.
Namiotka, 29, teamed with Coughlin from 2004 to 2007, USA Today reports, meaning that she would have between the ages of 14 and 17 while he was 18 to 21. Together they won three medals on the Junior Grand Prix series. They also placed in the 2007 U.S. national championships.
Namiotka's attorney John Manly also represents victims of disgraced gymnastics coach and serial abuser Larry Nassar.
He told The Washington Post that Namiotka and others were being "accused of killing" Coughlin. That, he said, pushed Namiotka to write the Facebook posts over the weekend. Manly said she wanted to say something after noticing a "maelstrom of support for the perpetrator from people who know literally nothing about the case."
Coughlin’s former agent Tara Modlin, meanwhile is claiming that Namiotka is unstable. She told USA Today in response to the allegations put forth on Facebook by Namiotka, “It seems that you want me to comment on an unstable persons (sic) Facebook comment – I don’t really understand your question. … my suggestion is to call some of his other partners.”
