Three former players of the Drummondville Voltigeurs junior hockey team have been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in the fall of 2016, according to Radio-Canada.
The Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Quebec (LHJMQ) issued a release Tuesday morning addressing the allegations, according to the Montreal Gazette.
“Both the league and the Drummondville Voltigeurs have just been made aware of the incident that allegedly occurred in 2016. The LHJMQ and its teams will co-operate with the police investigation and the legal process if they are called upon to do so,” the release reads.
Two of the three players were also minors at the time of the alleged assault but the third, Noah Corson, was an adult. Corson is the son of former Montreal Canadiens player Shayne Corson.
Corson waived his right to a preliminary hearing and is slated to appear in court in Drummondville in June 2023.
Étienne Lafleur, Corson’s agent, declined to comment further than denying Corson’s implication in the alleged assault.
The other two alleged assailants cannot have their identities disclosed due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. However, they pleaded guilty in court last year after being charged with sexual assault.
The accuser, whose name is protected under a publication ban, said she tried to erase the incident from her memory and that she suffered trauma after the attack.
She recognized the alleged assailants several weeks after the incident at a Voltigeurs game when she saw the photos of the team members on one of the walls.
“I identified just like that, otherwise I would have never known they were hockey players,” she explained in French in the Radio-Canada article. “I started crying right away. After I realized that they were there and that I had cheered them on, it’s like everything came up all at once.”
Éric Verrier, the president of the Voltigeurs denounced the players’ behaviour and denied knowing anything about it before the allegations became public.
“Never, and I mean never, has anyone in the organization been made aware of the incident. I was shocked, I still can’t believe it,” he said. “This goes against the organization’s values. We denounce situations like these and we will collaborate with the investigation if necessary.”
The allegations come at the same time as Hockey Canada tries to manage its own series of sexual misconduct scandals following the revelation of a May 2022 settlement regarding sexual assault allegations that took place in 2018.
Source: Complex.com