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An Alberta sheriff and former minor hockey trainer accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy has died.
Stephen Frank Dienes, 52, was scheduled to make a first appearance in Edmonton’s Court of Justice Tuesday morning on charges including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and unlawful confinement.
Instead, the Crown withdrew the counts “as the accused person is deceased,” Alberta Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson Michelle Davio said in an email.
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Dienes was arrested in September after a teenage boy claimed he sexually assaulted him in his home after meeting him online.
The alleged abuse occurred in 2022 after Dienes “befriended a 16-year-old male using social media with the intent of engaging in sexual contact,” Edmonton police said in a news release. “Dienes then reportedly sexually assaulted the youth later that same year in his residence.”
Police began investigating the allegation Sept. 10 and announced the charges eight days later. They also released his photo, alleging Dienes may have lured and assaulted other youth.
Dienes joined the St. Albert Raiders U-18 AAA team as a trainer for the 2018-19 season, but was no longer with the team or the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association at the time he was charged.
According to the Alberta government directory, he worked as a court and security services sheriff in Edmonton.
No information was provided about the circumstances of Dienes’s death.
—with files from Jason Hills
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