Report of sexual assault by western hockey player in 2018 triggers internal police review | Sports

The London Police Service has launched an internal review following a TSN report that a western male hockey player allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at her parents’ home in London, Ontario. home in March 2018.

The woman said TSN that the London police discouraged her from pressing charges.

It is the second sexual assault case in 2018 involving hockey players in London which police have come under intense scrutiny for their handling in recent months.

This summer, London police reopened an investigation into a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by eight members of Canada’s world junior hockey team in London in 2018. According to TSN report, the Western University hockey player involved in the alleged assault in March 2018 is not linked to the alleged incident involving the World Junior Team in July.

LPS chief Steve Williams said in a statement On Friday, he ordered an internal review of a March 2018 sexual assault investigation “in light of recent media reports.”

According TSN, King’s University College, where the West hockey player was a student, has hired an attorney to investigate the woman’s allegations. As London police conducted their own investigation, school lawyer Ashley Richards said TSN “The complainant’s allegations were found to be credible and her complaint was substantiated. »

King’s suspended the player for a year and a half and he was removed from the Mustangs men’s hockey team. The player was told that if he was to reapply to the school, he would have to take a course on sexual abuse, TSN reported.

Western Vice Provost for Students John Doerksen said in a statement to the Gazette that since the alleged perpetrator was enrolled in an affiliated college, the incident was not investigated in accordance with Western policies. Doerksen added that “Western is committed to working towards a solution that helps end gender-based and sexual violence.”

The LPS arrested the player but he was never charged. The player eventually signed a peace bond and was ordered to pay a $500 fine and ordered not to come within 25 yards of the woman.

London police announced in July they were reopening the investigation into the allegation that eight members of the world junior team sexually assaulted a woman in 2018. The woman behind the allegation received a $3.55 million settlement from Hockey Canada in 2018, before the organization investigated what happened or the players involved.

On the very night of the alleged July assault, a Western student, who speak with Athleticism, said she left Jack’s, a popular downtown bar, after feeling uncomfortable around the same group of world junior hockey players. She said a player she had consensually kissed started asking her teammates to kiss her too, later telling her she should come back to the team hotel, the Delta Hotel London Armories.

It was at this same hotel that the other young woman, who met the players at the same bar that evening, later alleged she had been sexually assaulted.

After being criticized for its handling of London’s alleged assault involving the World Junior Team, Hockey Canada said they had not done enough to respond to their team’s actions and had not done enough to “end the culture of toxic behavior”. in our game.