Tennis coach in Delaware sentenced to three years for sex crimes
Jerry SmithCarl Fennell, a longtime tennis coach in Delaware, was sentenced to three years in prison for forcing a 14-year-old girl to perform sex acts on him after tennis lessons from 1989 to 1990.
Fennell, 73, faced life in prison if convicted of the 10 counts of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse filed in August. He pleaded guilty to third-degree unlawful sexual intercourse.
"I trusted him. I was only 14 years old and he took advantage of my trust," the now 43-year-old victim told the court Friday. "He stripped me of my innocence, and in doing so extinguished the fire for life that once blazed inside me."
Fennell, a 2015 inductee into the Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame, turned himself into Dover police in July after the victim filed a complaint 29 years after the incidents occurred.
According to police, Fennell admitted that he drove the victim to the tennis courts at Delaware Technical Community College and coerced her to perform sexual acts in his car.
In the plea agreement, Fennell was sentenced to 30 years, which will be suspended after he serves three years. He must serves two years of probation and register as a Tier 2 sex offender.
In court Friday, the victim said one reason she didn't come forward sooner was because she was friends with Fennell's sons. She said she wanted to spare them the trauma and shock she experienced.
But the biggest reason was she was "the shame, embarrassment and grief I have carried every single day of my life for the past 29 years," she said.
The victim said she twice attempted suicide and continues to suffer flashbacks and mental and physical problems related to the stress.
Fennell worked for Capital School District from 1969 until 2001 and was a respected tennis coach who taught disadvantaged students after his retirement.
According to the Delaware State University website, Fennell was a member of the school’s women’s tennis team staff beginning in September 2007, but no ending date was given.
Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.
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