PART I
For Mainwaring’s victims, the proceedings in Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield Thursday afternoon were a half century in the making.
“He gave me a nickname- He called me face, because I had a handsome face, I guess. I was 13. Do you remember that, Conrad?" David Sweet asked Mainwaring. "Well, I hope you remember this face for a long, long time.”
Sweet, now a 60-year-old social worker in Carmel, New York, directly confronted the sexual predator who shattered his young life in the late 1970s. The 72-year-old Mainwaring sat silently in a wheelchair wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, ankle shackles, and a surgical mask during the hearing.
“Conrad was the head counselor of the senior camp at Greylock, a position of authority," said Sweet. "The end of my relationship with Conrad came when we were in the back of a van coming back from a Camp Greylock trip. It was dark and chilly. He put a blanket over our legs. He started tickling me, saying I need to control my mind to be an Olympic athlete. He fondled my privates through my pants. How confusing that he was the first person in my life to give me an orgasm in the back of that van. Good God. I was 13 years old.”
Mainwaring earned his reputation as an elite coach after competing in the men’s hurdles at the 1976 Summer Olympics for his home nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Sweet was one of a group of boys Mainwaring dubbed “The Squad” and serially targeted for abuse.
“After camp was over, and we all went home, he called my house in New York, wanting to come over to massage me," Sweet continued. "That freaked me out. He had my address and phone number. I guess a serial pedophile knows no boundaries. He also wrote a letter to my house, asking me to go live with him and train for the Olympics. Oh my god. I remember my mom saying how highly he must have thought of me. She didn't know. I crumpled up the letter. He frightened me to death. Was he coming for me? What was he capable of? I finally revealed what happened to me when I had an accidental drug overdose at 15 and landed in a psych hospital.”
In the 90s, Sweet attempted to sound the alarm on his abuser, who by that time had relocated to Western New York.
“When I worked for Child Protective Services, I tried to catch Conrad Mainwaring," he told the court. "A friend mentioned he was at Syracuse [University]- I contacted the FBI, the Syracuse track coach. I tracked him to UCLA and contacted them. I wrote to Massachusetts law enforcement and contacted Camp Greylock.”
Nothing came of his warnings. It wasn’t until a 2019 investigation by ESPN that authorities took action. Then-Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington extradited Mainwaring from California to charge him with 12 counts of indecent assault and battery in 2021. The charges brought by current DA Timothy Shugrue only relate to Mainwaring’s conduct in Massachusetts.
“There's currently a civil case against Syracuse University and Camp Greylock due to their inaction, involving Mr. Mainwaring,” said Sweet.
Mainwaring’s well-established practices of using his authority to prey sexually on young men and boys continued when he relocated to California. Sweet noted that when he was discovered there, the criminal legal system failed to protect the community from Mainwaring’s predation.
“After his arrest in Los Angeles in 2019 for sexual battery by fraud against a then 20-year-old UCLA student, ABC News reported Mainwaring pleaded no contest in the LA case to a charge of felony false imprisonment," he said. "He was not required to register as a sex offender, nor does the plea preclude him from coaching boys or young men. The deal places him on probation for two years and requires him to attend 52 sexual offender classes and to perform 30 days of community service. We cannot let that happen here in Massachusetts.”
Sweet said Mainwaring’s crimes deserve federal charges as well.
“I personally don't think that he can ever be trusted around boys or young men," he said. "Our victims/survivors group has knowledge of over 400 of us that were reportedly abused by Mr. Mainwaring. Isn't that enough?”
John Shapiro, another of Mainwaring’s victims who offered his testimony over video, said that the mental and emotional torture he experienced at Camp Greylock and later at Syracuse University and Cal Tech rivaled the pain of the sexual abuse.
“The manipulation and mental abuse that he heaped on me was devastating, making me feel worthless, not worthy of living, and making me feel like a substandard, tragically flawed person,” he said.
Shapiro had ambitions of playing in the NFL, and as a youth saw Mainwaring as the means of achieving a lifelong dream.
“I often wonder what my life would have been had I never gone to Greylock and run into this poisonous, lecherous, manipulative and devious monster of a man," said Shapiro. "I try not to think about it, as it does no good. But I can't help think about what my life would have been like had I never met him. It's impossible to describe the pain and suffering that Mr. Mainwaring has caused to me and thousands of others. It is not an exaggeration when I say that he has ruined many lives- And not just the victims, but their close family members too. My ex-wife and my kids have heard me screaming at the top of my lungs in the middle of the night from my endless nightmares about this many, many times.”
Like Sweet, Shapiro noted the broad systemic failures that allowed Mainwaring to continue abusing.
“Mr. Mainwaring could have been stopped several times by several institutions," he said. "Syracuse University had a chance to stop him but turned a blind eye. Same with [Camp] Greylock. Very likely hundreds of victims wouldn't be victims. So, to the judge, future parole board members, and powers that be, I urge you to put him behind bars for as long as possible- Not only for justice, but for prevention. And I'll leave on this last note: I will never forgive him. Monsters should not be forgiven, only caged.”
Mainwaring pleaded guilty to an array of charges. He received a sentence of at least a decade in prison followed by a three-year probation period among other conditions of release. Judge John Agostini described it as “probably a life sentence” given Mainwaring’s age and health.
PART II
In the library of the Berkshire District Attorney’s office after Mainwaring’s sentencing, David Sweet reflected on the experience of facing his abuser half a century later.
“It was freaky seeing him again after all these years and knowing how much damage that he had been responsible for, not just in my life, but in so many others," said Sweet. "I was kind of looking- is he still awake? I was kind of happy that the judge was asking him questions to prove that in fact, he was awake.”
During the dramatic testimony given by those whose lives he forever altered, Mainwaring – remembered as a strapping, charismatic leader in the 70s – was much diminished.
“I'm a social worker, and there's a word disassociate, where it seemed like maybe he was there, but he was kind of not really there,” said Sweet.
Another survivor, Tym De Santo – whose blog on Mainwaring’s crimes served as an early rallying point for his victims – said that the shine of Mainwaring’s accomplishments has dimmed over time.
“The reality of his Olympic efforts is that if it were today, his times wouldn't qualify him for an NCAA Division I school," said De Santo. "Antigua at the time had, I don't know if they’d declared independence, but there was this weird window where he was able to make that team, I believe, without qualifying times. No one really mentions that. But at the time, it didn't matter. He was an Olympian, and people were like, oh my goodness, he was in the Olympics and he's this amazing coach.”
Sweet was asked what safeguards he thought should be in place at institutions like Camp Greylock that put the safety of young people in the hands of a predator like Mainwaring.
“There needs to be more openness, communication," he said. "Talk with your kids, talk with your parents. Certainly, institutions like a camp or a school should have regular procedures to inquire about anyone that they're hiring, and careful background checks. This should be included in background checks."
Given his own tortured journey to finally speaking out about his abuse, Sweet had one word of advice for parents: Listen.
“When you talk to your kids, or when they're trying to talk to you, listen to what they're trying to say," he said. "It's not always- It might not always be what you want to hear, but you want them to know that they can talk to you about anything even difficult things like this.”
Mainwaring survivor John Shapiro, who attended the press conference via phone, said that it took him decades to fully understand what had happened to him.
“When a heterosexual boy is submitted to sexual abuse by homosexual, it's so shameful for them that like 90% of the time – I'm not saying I know the exact quotes – but most of the time, they bury it," he said. "And they're so shamed and they don't tell anybody, and it doesn't start coming and it doesn't fester up and you don't realize, you don't have that a-ha moment until you're in your late 30s or early 40s.”
De Santo agreed.
“People don't perceive male victims at all the same as female, and so we have this huge movement of women being empowered to step out and speak out for the challenges they were facing, but it has felt for me, fair or not, like there's a bit of hiding behind, they're still guys, and they should have known," he said. "And that's a horrible thing to live with for decade after decade, and even for me, they're even- I have family members who say things that I just, I can tell there's not they're not buying into it. And so, sitting there today and seeing this happen and hearing everyone talk about knowing the volume of people that are affected and it being on the record, and it's like, hey, this is a real thing- I felt justified.”
While the day brought Mainwaring’s survivors a delirious blend of relief, fear, excitement, and despair, their eyes are now on the ongoing civil suits against Camp Greylock and Syracuse University.
“We're hoping that they admit guilt and put pieces in place to prevent this from happening again," said Shapiro. "And we hope it gets a lot of press. So other universities and camps can do the same thing.”
