Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano, the two former Victoriaville Tigres players sentenced to prison terms for the rape of a 17-year-old minor, will be able to regain their freedom.
Judge Geneviève Cotnam of the Quebec Court of Appeal granted permission to the two young men to appeal the sentences of 32 and 30 months respectively imposed on them last Monday by Judge Thomas Jacques of the Court of Quebec.
The appeal will be heard on the merits on November 20. The two individuals were required to provide bail of $2,000 each. A series of conditions were imposed on them, including having no contact with the victim or being near her home, place of work or place of study.
Lawyers for the two convicts, now 21, had asked for a sentence of a few months that could be served in the community, but Judge Jacques opted for a prison sentence of more than two years, which would automatically send them to a federal penitentiary. They consider this sentence too harsh.
The magistrate had, however, invoked the collective nature of the attack and had reproached the accused for having abused the victim’s trust. He had also praised the victim’s courage in having denounced the crime, believing that she was thus sending “a message of hope” to other victims of sexual violence.
Gang rape
Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano were 18 years old at the time of the assault. The team had stayed for a month in a hotel in Lac-Beauport where the victim worked for the duration of the playoffs. On the evening of June 5, 2021, the team had just won the President’s Cup of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and its members were celebrating the victory.
The teenager, who cannot be identified due to a court order, had befriended Nicolas Daigle during the team’s stay. After the Tigers’ victory, she initially refused to join the team’s festivities and declined an initial invitation from Nicolas Daigle, but he eventually convinced her to join him in his room after her shift.
She had made it clear that she wanted Nicolas Daigle to be alone, but when he arrived, Massimo Siciliano was also there. During her testimony, she said she felt “trapped.”
The two men then raped her for 40 minutes, acting simultaneously at times. The two attackers did not use any means of protection. The young woman had never consented to having a threesome.
Filmed without his knowledge
Nicolas Daigle had filmed the young woman without her knowledge. In addition to sexual assault, he pleaded guilty to charges of producing a recording infringing on privacy and making intimate images accessible, hence the two-month longer sentence he was given.
Daigle and Siciliano were suspended by league officials after the charges were filed and have not played hockey since.