Longtime Youth Hockey Coach Charged With Sexual Abuse Of Players

WOODBURY, NJ (CBS) -- A traveling youth hockey coach is facing child sex abuse charges in New Jersey and Delaware and is being looked at by authorities in three other states

Fifty-five-year-old Walter "Tracy" Ferinden, of Lansdale, has been a coach or skating instructor since the early 90's, working in the tri-state area as well as New York and Vermont.

He's accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy in an apartment in Deptford in 1994. That youth was a member of a junior hockey league based out of the Holly Dell Ice Arena in Washington Township, according to Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton.

"It is especially devastating when persons entrusted with the care and supervision of young people violate that trust," Dalton told KYW Newsradio.

Another alleged New Jersey victim's case could not be prosecuted, given a statute of limitations that existed at the time, but is no longer in place.

Ferinden is also charged with abusing two boys in New Castle County, Delaware.

"The defendant's arrest does not mark the end of this investigation," said New Castle County officer J.P. Piser. "Our investigators believe that there may be more victims who have yet to come forward."

Others who may have been victimized are asked to contact law enforcement, and authorities in the other three states have been alerted.

Ferinden is free on bail in the Delaware case and is expected to surrender to face the New Jersey charge. His New Jersey attorney was not immediately available for comment.