Canadian hockey players are jailed for group sex attack on girl, 17, who was working at their hotel: Filmed assault and showed it to teammates
Two Canadian hockey stars have been jailed for a prolonged sexual attack on a teenage hotel worker who later realized she was the 'ideal sardine for their fish net'.
Nicolas Daigle, 21, lured the 17-year-old to his room where Victoriaville Tigres teammate Massimo Siciliano, 21, was also waiting before the pair assaulted her for 40 minutes in June 2021.
The rest of the team was celebrating their triumph in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, and Daigle ran downstairs to show them video he had filmed of the attack.
But a Quebec city court heard that a team employee simply made him delete the video as Siciliano continued the assault upstairs.
Crown attorney Michel Berube said he hoped the case would encourage other victims to come forward as Daigle was jailed for 32 months, and Siciliano for 30.
'It's a significant sentence that reflects the gravity of what happened,' he added.
Nicolas Daigle, 21, (left) and Massimo Siciliano, 21, (right) entering court ahead of their plea hearing with defense lawyer Michael Lebrun
Daigle and Siciliano were rising stars with the Victoriaville Tigres when they attacked the teenage hotel worker after luring her to their room in June 2021
The court heard that the teenage victim got to know Daigle during the month his team spent at the hotel in the Quebec resort town of Lac-Beauport during the 2021 playoffs.
She turned down an invitation from team members to join their party in a conference room of the hotel on June 5, and also refused Daigle's request to join him in his room, citing company rules.
But Daigle messaged her again after she clocked off and persuaded her to go to his room.
She did not know Siciliano and told the court she felt trapped as the pair assaulted her, sometimes simultaneously, while Daigle filmed his surreptitious video.
'I was vulnerable, the ideal sardine for their fish net,' she told a sentencing hearing in March.
'I fell into a trap for a long time thinking that it was my fault that I was there. I felt guilty.
'Now, I am convinced more than ever that what I experienced should not have happened, that it was not my fault, that I was a victim of sexual assault.'
The court heard that she was sobbing as she sought refuge in the bathroom and that her attackers admitted to each other that she had not enjoyed herself when they spoke afterwards.
The team had been celebrating its victory in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League
The team had spent a month at the hotel in the picturesque Quebec resort town of Lac-Beauport as they prepared for their league play-offs in June 2021
The scandal is just the latest to rock the sport in Canada where five international stars are still awaiting trial for the alleged gang rape of a young woman in 2018.
Police initially dropped their investigation into the attack at the Delta London Armouries Hotel in London, Ontario, only resuming it in 2022 after the woman won a $3.5 million lawsuit against Hockey Canada.
Michael McLeod and Cal Foote, formerly of the New Jersey Devils, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Alex Formenton, a former NHL player who now plays in Switzerland, currently face a court date next month.
Ontario Detective Sergeant Katherine Dann admitted in February there was not enough evidence to bring charges against the other three men accused of involvement.
'I will just say we've laid out the charges that we have reasonable grounds for at this time,' she explained.
Daigle and Siciliano admitted sexual assault at a hearing in October at the start of what was to have been an 11-day trial.
Daigle also admitted two charges of filming and exhibiting a video of the attack, a video the victim only became aware of the following day.
Michael McLeod (left) and Carter Hart (right) are two of five players awaiting trial for rape
Cal Foote (left) Dillon Dube, and Alex Formenton (right) also allegedly took part in a 2018 attack on a woman at the Delta London Armouries Hotel in London, Ontario
They told the court they had been drunk and admitted they did not take reasonable measures to obtain the victim's consent.
Ahead of sentencing on Monday they expressed remorse and said they no longer planned to pursue a career as hockey players.
'We have two individuals who were playing for a prestigious league in Quebec, who committed acts and were found guilty and were sent to prison today,' Berube told reporters.
'I hope that the courage of the victim in this case will inspire anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault to come forward – no matter how powerful or influential their perpetrator might have been.'
