Six years after a Cobb County mother said she reported Ron Gorman to authorities about allegations of child sex crimes, she’s hoping the former Life University wrestling coach’s arrest last week yields some justice.
The mom told Channel 2 Action News she reported Gorman to police in 2011 after she found messages between her son and Gorman, then a volunteer wrestling coach at Pope High School.
The mom’s identity was concealed by the news station to protect her son. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not name victims of sex crimes.
“I don't feel like the people that were in the positions down here to protect my child and look into this as much as they could have or should have,” she told the news station.
So she did some digging herself, using social media to find two other alleged victims — one in Cobb County and another in Pennsylvania, where Gorman is from and once worked as a youth coach.
It was her detective work, she told Channel 2, that led to Gorman’s arrest Friday at his east Cobb home.
Life University officials fired Gorman Feb. 20, spokesman William Brooks said in a news release.
“The University never received complaints about Mr. Gorman regarding any incident occurring on our campus or involving any member of the Life community,” the statement read.
Gorman remained in the Cobb County jail Tuesday evening, accused in Pennsylvania of sexually abusing a now 20-year-old when he was 10, according to a police report. The victim told police the alleged abuse ended when he turned 15.
"She has made it her life's goal to make sure Mr. Gorman didn't hurt another child,” attorney Matthew Enslein told the news station. “If it weren't for her, Gorman would still be free and other kids might still be harmed.”
Enslein is advising the mom as she searches for other possible victims, Channel 2 reported.
“Predators survive on silence and denial unfortunately,” the mom told the news station, “and I think there's been too much of that in this community.”
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