Ontario woman alleges sexual assault by junior hockey gamers

Content material advisory: This text contains allegations of sexual assault.

The Ontario Provincial Police has acknowledged that one among its workers didn’t comply with the group’s coverage when an alleged sufferer of sexual assault referred to as an area detachment earlier this 12 months to report an incident involving eight former junior hockey gamers.

The girl, who’s now 32, mentioned she contacted the OPP on Feb. 28 to report an alleged assault in November 2014.

OPP spokeswoman Gosia Puzio wrote in an electronic mail to W5 that alleged sexual assault victims in Ontario must file studies with the police drive within the jurisdiction the place the alleged assault passed off. On this case, a civilian worker breached OPP coverage by not remaining on the cellphone with the alleged sufferer till they reached the suitable individual.

“In response to your inquiry, the Ontario Provincial Police takes all allegations of sexual assault significantly and acknowledges the braveness it takes for victims to return ahead,” Puzio wrote. “We perceive how vital it’s for victims to really feel heard, revered and supported.

“We now have reviewed the decision made to the [OPP] provincial communications centre in London concerning the historic sexual assault. We are able to affirm that the civilian call-taker supplied the sufferer with the contact data for the police service of jurisdiction to facilitate their report. Nonetheless, normal working procedures state that the call-taker ought to have personally linked the caller to the police service of jurisdiction, and remained on the road till the call-taker might affirm {that a} report was being initiated.”

The alleged sufferer instructed W5 that after she contacted the police drive the place her alleged assault passed off, she was instructed they might not assist her both. She was instructed to name police locally the place she now lives.

‘Anne Marie’ instructed W5 that after she contacted the police drive the place her alleged assault passed off, she was instructed they might not assist her both.

The alleged sufferer goes by the pseudonym, Anne Marie.

Particulars of assault allegations

She mentioned that when she was 22, she was in a consensual relationship with a 19-year-old Ontario Hockey League participant for about six months when he invited her to observe TV with one among his teammates at his billet residence, the house the place he lived throughout the hockey season.

Anne Marie mentioned when she visited the participant and went with him into the basement, there have been eight gamers there. After the 19-year-old participant took her into the toilet, they began playing around. What started as a consensual act grew to become a bunch sexual assault, the lady mentioned.

“I used to be taken into a toilet,” she mentioned. “And that is when the participant who invited me over started having intercourse with me — beginning sexual acts. They by no means closed the toilet door totally… After which subsequent factor I do know extra gamers begin coming in. There’s gamers standing and watching. They begin taking their turns, doing no matter it’s they need.”

Anne Marie mentioned she felt trapped and was assaulted for about 90 minutes. She mentioned she froze and “just about blacked out.”

“You are caught within the basement with eight junior hockey gamers,” she mentioned. “Trapped in a nook, actually within the far again room of a basement.”

She mentioned she remembers gamers referring to one another by their nicknames.

“Fairly rapidly it bought to the purpose the place I simply tried to take my thoughts some place else and tried not even to make eye contact,” she mentioned. “I waited for the primary filter accessible, which was just about after everybody had taken a flip, some greater than as soon as. I used to be introduced into the bathe. And after that, I felt like I had an opportunity to get the hell out.”

‘I believed it was my fault’

Anne Marie mentioned she phoned a feminine buddy whereas she was driving residence and instructed her what had occurred. W5 independently contacted that girl, who corroborated her cellphone name in 2014 with Anne Marie. The buddy mentioned she recalled Anne Marie telling her that she didn’t know whether or not she would contact police as a result of a few of the hockey gamers have been 16 and had gave the impression to be pressured to participate within the assault by the 19-year-old participant who invited her to the house.

Anne Marie mentioned she didn’t inform her household what had occurred till this 12 months, after watching a press convention by which London’s chief of police apologized to a distinct girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by former Canadian world junior gamers. In that case, 5 former Group Canada gamers are awaiting trial for sexual assault.

“I simply felt ashamed,” Anne Marie mentioned. “I by no means instructed anybody as a result of I believed it was my fault. I believed I used to be the one which was accountable as a result of I had made the selection to go hang around with this man and a buddy… It wasn’t till a few years in the past that I had really realized that it was sexual assault as a result of I had pushed it to date out of my thoughts. I did what I might to simply neglect it, not give it some thought, wipe it away. Nevertheless it simply constructed up inside at the back of my mind… So it is solely been the previous couple years that I’ve really had the prospect to call it and determine it and start to grasp it. And the worst half has been accepting what occurred.”