Content warning: this article contains allegations of sexual assault.
The Ontario Hockey League has released a statement in response to a CTV W5 investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2014.
The OHL says they are aware of the allegations and are taking them “very seriously.” In the media release, the OHL also says they will cooperate with any police investigations.
In the CTV W5 report, a woman going by the pseudonym Anne-Marie alleges that she was sexually assaulted in November, 2014 by a group of eight former OHL players. The then 22-year-old woman says she was in a relationship with one of the players. She claims that she went over to the billet family house where the player lived, and understood that she would be hanging out with her boyfriend and “a couple of his buddies.” She was unaware that there would be seven other players in the basement at the time.
In the media release, the Ontario Hockey League says “the OHL first learned of these allegations on Wednesday, and had no previous knowledge of the alleged event.”
They went on to say “the OHL recognizes the courage required for victims of sexual assault to come forward with their experiences, and would always desire to see justice served and perpetrators held to account.”
Anne-Marie says that she reached out to the OPP on February, 28th of this year to report the incident that allegedly happened in November, 2014. According to the W5 report, the OPP says that an employee breached OPP policy by not staying on the phone with the alleged victim until they were connected with the appropriate person. Anne-Marie says that she contacted the police force where her alleged assault took place, but she was told they could not help her and she needed to call police in the community where she is currently living.
XFM news reached out to the London Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police for comment. LPS said “(we were) made aware that this is not a London Police investigation.” The OPP has said that they are still working on a response to the inquiry.
