Five months after ski coach Bertrand Charest was convicted of sexual assault, his victims had their day in court.

Several of the 12 women that Charest assaulted testified about the impact of the crimes on their lives at the time and in the years since.

Charest was found guilty on 37 charges of sexually assaulting women between the ages of 12 and 19 in the 1990s, including while he was a coach for Alpine Canada.

The crimes took place both in Canada and overseas, and Charest was leading skiers to international competitions.

While the assaults took place 20 years ago, the effect of Charest's indecent acts had lifelong impacts on the young women, one telling the court he robbed her of her childhood.

All said that Charest destroyed their self-esteem and forced them to keep terrible secrets while they were training to be the top skiers in Canada.

"I was taken advantage of and then he brainwashed me," said one woman.

During the trial one witness testified how Charest convinced a 15-year-old girl to have an abortion, and took the child to his father, a doctor, to get a prescription for an abortion pill.

When he rendered his sentence Judge Sylvain Lepine said that Charest manipulated the girls who were in his care and abused his power.

Charest faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, but has already been in custody for two and a half years. The Crown is seeking a 12-year prison term, pointing out a pre-sentencing report showed Charest believes he is the victim.

"This is what we're pleading to the judge, that it is an important fact in those types of cases to have to see there's remorse or empathy towards the victim which there was none in the case of Mr. Charest," said prosecutor Caroline Lafleur.

Charest's lawyer, Antonio Cabral, believes that sentence is too long and that the odds his client will reoffend are low.

His argument will be presented to the court next week.

"We're going to have the opportunity to present our arguments and obviously it's going to be lower than that considering all the jurisprudence we're going to submit," said Cabral.

Charest is appealing his conviction on the 37 charges, with Cabral saying there is a lengthy list of legal errors made by the trial judge.