Gymnastics coach gets 10-year prison sentence in child sex abuse cases

Monday, October 9, 2023
BOERNE, Texas (KTRK) -- A former gymnastics coach was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to several child sexual abuse charges.

According to ABC13's news partners at the Houston Chronicle, 75-year-old Michael Spiller pleaded guilty to four charges of indecency with a child with exposure.
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Spiller received 10-year sentences on each of the four charges but will serve all four terms concurrently, meaning a total of 10 years behind bars.

Prosecutors said Spiller worked closely with children for the last six decades and ran gymnastics camps in multiple cities, including Houston.

Police said he has worked in Texas, California, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Switzerland.

In Texas, Spillers previously was employed as a coach in Houston, Giddings, Galveston, and Boerne.



Back in November 2022, he was arrested at a gymnastics center in Boerne, Texas, where police said he had been working for the last 30 years.
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A month after his arrest, the Houston Chronicle profiled one of Spiller's victims, who said she was 10 years old in 1983 when he cuddled and touched her during a gymnastics sleepover at the gym where he worked, called Rowland's Northwest.

Police said the victim came forward in October 2022, leading to his arrest in November 2022. Spiller turned himself in to Boerne police and later bonded out, but he was arrested again on a second warrant for a similar crime alleged by the same victim.

Authorities said allegations toward Spiller are continuing to surface, going back as far as 1976.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport also filed a temporary suspension against him in June 2022 after the Houston Chronicle said another victim, still a juvenile, reported he put his hand down the back of her leotard while she was training at the Boerne Gymnastics Center in April 2022.

SEE MORE: Gymnastics coach arrested for indecency with a child has Houston connection
Gymnastics coach with Houston ties faces indecency with a child charge
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