The young woman who was raped at 15 by Noah Corson and two other hockey players never gave up despite the pitfalls and the long legal process, with the hope of protecting others and giving courage to the victims of denounce, regardless of the status of their attacker.
• Read also: Noah Corson is found guilty in turn
• Read also: Collective rape by three hockey players: Noah Corson believed he had the teenager’s consent
“I fought until the end to protect others. I will finally be able to turn the page and rebuild a new life, flourish at work and in my love life,” confides the victim of Noah-Lee Jetté Corson and two other minor hockey players at the time.
THE Newspaper met the woman, whose identity is being protected by the court, at a cafe a few days after the verdict. Corson, 25, was found guilty last Friday of sexual assault with the participation of third parties.
Hockey player Noah-Lee Jetté Corson during his trial last November at the Drummondville courthouse.
Photo Erika Aubin
Sitting a few meters from him in the courtroom, she then felt “an enormous weight that fell suddenly”.
“Finally, I was believed and heard,” explains the woman who was 15 years old at the time of the attack.
The two other minors involved had already received 18 months of probation with follow-up before the youth court. So, we cannot name them.
Almost six years have passed since she reported the gang rape that occurred in the fall of 2016 to the police. Today she shares her journey in the hope of encouraging others to report and to make people think young athletes on their behavior.
Fear of consequences
Before making the decision to file a complaint, she had imagined “all the worst possible stories”.
She particularly feared having to testify several times, having forgotten too many details of the evening to be believed by a judge, and being called a liar by the many friends of the three hockey players.
“I minimized what happened. I told myself it was my fault. I shouldn’t have opened the door for them [de l’appartement] or follow them into the room, I would have had to struggle, she remembers. I was even afraid of ruining their career.”
At the time of the attack, two of them were wearing the colors of the Drummondville Voltigeurs in major junior hockey.
“I wanted to erase him from my memory. It turned into a lot of anxiety. I didn’t go out anymore, going to school was difficult. I couldn’t put into words why I was starting to be afraid of the world,” she relates.
Face to face with his photo
But there was constantly something reminding her of the assault she suffered. Like the time she came face to face with a giant poster of one of her attackers while attending a Voltigeurs game with her father.
The publication of a laudatory portrait of Noah Corson in a media outlet was the last straw… especially since the player had already been accused for two years already.
However, the news concerning his accusations had not yet been publicly revealed, and the son of former Canadian Shayne Corson continued to play in a minor professional league, the East Coast Hockey League, in the United States.
“It hurt me,” she says about the article. He was living his best life playing hockey and traveling like nothing had happened while I was suffering and living with all the consequences.”
While he was lionized for his career, she was twice hospitalized in psychiatry due to suicide attempts.
To advance
Today, the young woman emerges from the legal process visibly with pride and with her head held high, despite the long delays and the stress.
“I sometimes thought that someone had forgotten my file. But in the end, it was done well and was worth the wait. The trial is difficult, but it was necessary to move forward and turn the page,” she says in hindsight.
“I feel like I can leave happy,” she adds, smiling. She highlights the support of the speakers and the Crown prosecutor, Mr.e Marc-André Roy, who “knew the file with his eyes closed”.
She hopes that hockey teams will now go a long way by raising awareness among their players, particularly on the notion of consent.
Noah Corson’s case returns to court next May for sentencing observations.