18-year old Andrew Picard (formerly Andrew Laurence Boeckman) has also been suspended from membership by the Amateur Swimming Association in Great Britain, a spokesperson confirmed today.
Picard’s permanent banishment from USA Swimming, an organization of which he was also a member and under whose guise he has swum more recently, was announced on Tuesday, and we reached out to the ASA to check on his status there, as most of Picard’s competitive swimming has been done in the UK.
Aquatics in the UK have a different structure than they do in the USA, and as such British Swimming (the most visible organization in the UK elite ranks) is not responsible for credentialing members. Instead, that duty falls to the different home nations, and in this case to England’s Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
According to the ASA spokesperson, English national governing bodies for sport are unable to give lifetime bans. That applies to all suspensions, and not just those relating to “safeguarding,” which is the term that the ASA uses to describe it’s athlete protection program, similar to USA Swimming’s “SafeSport.”
Instead, suspensions can be given for a specific time period, and once that time period is up, the individual in question is subjected to a “Forensic Risk Assessment” before they are considered for membership.
The ASA did confirm that Picard has been suspended by the ASA, though as of posting hadn’t yet responded to a specific request for the length of that suspension.
Picard was suspended after entering a guilty plea in British court to one count of possessing indecent pictures of children, one count of making indecent pictures of children, and 8 counts of distributing indecent photos of recordings of a child. He was caught by an undercover police officer in an online chat room distributing photos of young children, including abuse of babies and toddlers.
The judge in the case described some of the images as “so appalling, frankly I can’t bring myself to talk about it.”
Picard received a 12-month suspended prison sentence, and won’t serve any jail time if he follows the judges probationary orders in the next 18 months.
The courts allowed Boeckman to use the surname Picard to save his wealthy family from embarrassment. The rich gets special treatment that everyone else.