AJAX -- For two years Ray Collingham felt like somebody was holding a gun to his head.
The reality was even worse.
"I was charged with seven counts of sexual assault, four counts of sexual interference, two counts of invitation to sexual touching and two sexual exploitation charges," Collingham said in an interview yesterday.
The 39-year-old former gymnastics teacher was accused -- and acquitted earlier this month -- of having sex with an 11-year-old boy he had coached.
'UPSETTING'
"It's upsetting to read the charges," Collingham said while sitting at the kitchen table in the Ajax apartment he shares with his boyfriend, Brian Wood, 29. "All of the charges are false. All manufactured. Ridiculous charges."
Those words are part of a message that Collingham has desperately wanted to get out since July 9, 2007, when he was arrested by RCMP in Smithers, B.C., where he and Wood were living at the time.
But Collingham couldn't profess his innocence like he wanted to. His lawyer, Graham T. Clark, did what criminal lawyers do and instructed his client to remain silent until all the facts emerge in court.
After those facts emerged during a two-week trial in June, Justice David Salmers found Collingham not guilty on all counts.
"I am left with a reasonable doubt whether any of the alleged criminal contact or any criminal contact occurred," Salmers said in his ruling. The acquittal was based on what Salmers said were inconsistencies in statements and testimony by the complainant.
Now Collingham wants his life, name and reputation back.
"I've had a gun to my head, so to speak, for two years and now I'm hoping slowly that I'm going to be able to get back on my feet," Collingham said.

Although the nightmare ordeal began officially in July 2007, when he was arrested, Collingham's saga has roots in March 2001, when he began coaching the boy, who lived in Peterborough.
It was the boy's mom, Collingham said, who very nearly ruined his life. Collingham said she had been depressed and unstable over the breakup of her marriage. Seeing that the family was going through a hard time, Collingham and Wood allowed the mom, her son, and her daughter, to move into their Newcastle home.
Collingham maintains he was the victim of a smear campaign incited by the boy's mother, who resented him for caring for her son while her behaviour grew increasingly more out-of-control because of her failing marriage. Specifically, Collingham and Wood threatened to call police and children's aid workers over her erratic behaviour. They also threatened to request custody of the kids.
Things soured quickly. By early 2005 the relationship between Collingham and Wood and the mom had deteriorated.
Collingham also said the mother claimed to be in love with him, even though she was well aware Collingham was a gay man in a committed relationship. He said she once threw a chair at him. She also once forced her son to defecate in his pants -- and laughed about it -- after refusing to stop the car at a bathroom when the boy indicated he needed to go.
But it was the mother's hacking into Collingham's e-mail and Facebook accounts -- something she admitted in court, saying she wrote two e-mails from Collingham's accounts -- that caused police to investigate Collingham and ultimately charge him. The hacking took place in early 2007, a few months before he was arrested.
"The mother had threatened to get me a few months prior to this, in what way she was going to get me I have no idea," Collingham said. "Well, she got me."
The story gets bizarre at this point and Collingham acknowledges this.
"The mother manufactured some e-mails," Collingham said. "She hacked into my e-mail accounts, my Facebook account, and her son's, and she was writing sexually explicit e-mails from my account to her son, deleting them, and writing sexually explicit e- mails back to me and then deleting them. She then printed them out and brought them to police."
After a complaint was made by the mom to police in Toronto in 2005, the file was transferred first to Peterborough police, then finally to Durham Regional Police. Collingham was arrested by RCMP, held in a holding cell for four nights in B.C., and flown to Ontario. After another few days in jail in Lindsay, Collingham was released on $5,000 bail.
The same day, police in Durham issued a press release outlining Collingham's arrest, the charges he faced, and the claim that there could be more victims. In a news article, an investigating officer said the alleged assaults, which were never proven in court, "definitely had a tremendous impact on (the boy's) family, it definitely had a tremendous impact on him."
Collingham said he couldn't believe how prejudicial and biased the police appeared to be. He said such statements implied that he was guilty until proven innocent.
Collingham said the boy lied "all the way through" the ordeal and that homophobia among the boy's family was at the "core" of the allegations.
"I'm not really one to use that card," Collingham said of the homophobia issue. "My lawyer said 'Ray, look from the outside in, that's exactly what's happening here'."
His acquittal was an overwhelming relief, he said. But the ordeal has left him doubting the justice system.
"I highly respect police officers. Two or three of my close friends are police officers. But now, seeing how things unfold when you're charged with something like this, it raises my suspicion about how honest some police officers are and some aren't," Collingham said.
"Everyone has their own opinions, but that's why I'm here today," he said. "I want to explain that these were false allegations, that I was acquitted. I want to be able to rebuild my life."
BRETT.CLARKSON @ SUNMEDIA.CA
Note: Updated Wednesday 17th June 2009 8.00pm Sydney Time. Love For Life does not support harm doing in any shape or form. However, we are supporters of free speech and post articles, documentaries, etc, that represent a wide cross section of ideas. See the Love For Life extensive research library where over 6000 documents, articles and videos are posted: http://loveforlife.com.au/issues. We clearly see the evidence of the destruction to MAN and the earth that has been caused by ALL religions over the centuries and are therefore not supporters of religions, cults, sects or any group that demands conformity of thought, speech or action, or has rules, regulations or rituals that must be followed. Religions, nationalities and cultural "identities" are formed as a result of the brainwashing we receive from childhood. They are part of the tactics the Establishment uses to keep us all divided from one another and fighting one another.
All religions promote discrimination and division, leading to hatred and even violence and murder. None of them have yet to produce a remedy to all the suffering, poverty, unhappiness and discrimination in the world. If any religion truly had the remedy to all the suffering on earth, there would no longer be any suffering. What have Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, atheism and the New Age done to end the suffering in the world?
The Love For Life website has information from all sides on many subjects, whether about Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Law, health, psychology, mind control, vaccination, aspartame, MSG, Chemtrails etc. There are over 6000 articles, documentaries etc on the website and they are so diverse that we are sure that everyone would be able to find something they loved and something they hated, if they took the time to search. If we removed all the articles hated by everyone, there would probably be nothing left! We are not anti anyone but freedom of speech is freedom of speech and no one should condemn the work of another without taking the time to research the subject themselves. Yes, there are articles by those who have a less-than-rosy-viewpoint of Judaism, but there are also articles on the dark side of Tibetan Buddhism (and it is very dark) for those who are interested in the truth: Tibet - Buddhism - Dalai Lama: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/6271 Should the authors of these articles be abused and imprisoned for daring to challenge the widely conceived reputation of Buddhism as being the religion of peace and love and that of the Dalai Lama as a saint, or should those interested be allowed to study the work and come to their own conclusions? The same applies to all the articles, documentaries, etc, about Christianity, Islam, Freemasonry, New World Order, etc.
The Love for Life website also shows how the Rule of Law, the Bar, the Government, the Monarchy, the system of commerce, the local, national and multi/trans-national private corporations, all the courses and careers on offer from our universities, all the educators, scientists, academics and experts, the aristocrats and the Establishment bloodlines have also done NOTHING to end the suffering in the world. The website maps the insanity of a world where there is no help for those in need, just as there was no help available for us when we were victims of terrible bank fraud: http://loveforlife.com.au/court_case (orchestrated, condoned and protected by an international crime syndicate/terrorist organisation of judges, barristers, registrars, lawyers, politicians, banksters, big business representatives, media moguls and other lackeys who, all together, put up a wall of silence despite our trying many, many avenues. After the family home was stolen and business destroyed we were left close to poverty and destitution caring for 4 young daughters. Three years later not much has changed regardless of all our efforts. Where were all the followers of all the religions to help us? Or do we have to be members of those religions to receive help from others involved in them?
We have been accused of being anti - Jewish because we had posted an excerpt from James von Brun's book: Kill the Best Gentiles! http://loveforlife.com.au/node/6054 in which he blames Jews for the problems of the world. Obviously this is not our view because of what we have stated above. We do not hate anyone, whatever religion they follow. We are always open to talk to any religious leader or politician and meet with any judge, member of the Bar, experts, academics, educators etc to share the remedy we offer that heals all the divisions between MAN and MAN, and MAN and the EARTH.
Today, a representative of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies is threatening to close the website down, because they have decided it is anti - Jewish and that we promote racism. What has the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies done to end the suffering in the world? Can they show that they are concerned with the suffering of ALL men, women and children AND ARE SEEN TO BE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT or are they only concerned with Jewish affairs? If so, they, along with all the other religions that only care for their own, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The man who rang Arthur today was only concerned with Jewish affairs; he was not interested in our intentions or in anybody else, just as most Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Catholics, etc, are only interested in their own. While we separate ourselves into groups, dividing ourselves from others with rules, regulations, rituals, procedures and conditions, we will never solve our problems.
No matter what we in the Western World Civilisation of Commerce have been promised by our politicians, religious leaders, scientists, educators, philosophers, etc, for the past two hundred years, all we have seen is ever-increasing destruction of men, women and children and the earth. None of the so-called experts and leaders we have been taught to rely on are coming up with a solution and none of them are taking full-responsibility for the fact that they can't handle the problem. All religious books talk about end times full of destruction and suffering but why do we have to follow this program when there is an alternative to hatred, mayhem and death? Why are our leaders following the program of destruction and death rather than exploring the alternatives? It seems that any mainstream politician, priest or academic are only interested in supporting the RULES OF THE DIVIDE, that maintain the haves and the have nots. For 200+ years, 99% of the world population have been so trained to pass on their responsibility for themselves, others and the earth, that the 1% of the population that make up the leaders of the rest of us are making all the decisions leading to the destruction of all of us and the earth. Let's not forget the education system that brainwashes the 99% of the population that we are free and have equal rights while, in fact, we are feathering the nests of those at the top.
At the root of all our problems is self-centredness, an unwillingness nurtured by the Establishment that keeps us concerned only with our own needs rather than the needs of others around us and the Earth. Instead of creating and releasing acts of love for those around us as gifts to benefit them and the earth, we take, take and take, until there is nothing left. The whole point of the Love for Life website is to show people the root of all our problems and to share the remedy. The extensive research library is there to attract browsers and to provide access to information not available through mainstream channels. If the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies can, after careful examination of our work, prove that anything we are saying is wrong, we will be happy to accept their proof. If they cannot, and they are still insistent on closing the website down, they will be showing themselves to be traitors to MAN because they are not interested in pursuing any avenue that can end the suffering in the world.
All religions, corporations and organisations that support and maintain the Western World Civilisation of Commerce are part of the problem because our civilisation is a world of haves and have nots, racism, violence, hatred, poverty, sickness, discrimination, abuse, starvation, homelessness, corruption, collusion, vindictiveness, social unrest, arrogance, ignorance, fear, war and chaos. While we support civilisation, we support death and destruction because ALL civilisations that have ever existed are apocalyptic by design.
If we truly want peace on earth and freedom for all, we have to let go of all that which keeps us divided, and come together as MAN, conscious living co-creators of creation. The Love For Life website offers a remedy to the problems we all face in the form of DO NO HARM COMMUNITIES: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/3641 For more details see here: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/6511 and here: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/3385 - We also highly recommend that everyone read the brilliant Russian books called The Ringing Cedars: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/1125 - The Love For Life homepage/front-page also provides lots of inspiring remedy based information: http://loveforlife.com.au - If you want to be kept up to date with our work please register to the Love For Life mailing list here: http://loveforlife.com.au/campaign_list We usually send two postings per month. Presently there are over 5000 registrations reaching over 200,000 readers globally. The website now receives over 2 million strikes per month with June 2009 heading close to (or over) 3 million strikes.
Conscious Love Always
Arthur and Fiona Cristian
Love For Life
17th June 2009
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