A former high school football star from Richmond is among three members of McGill University's football team facing sexual assault charges.
Brenden Carriere will be in a Quebec Court next month for a preliminary hearing on charges of sexual assault with a weapon and forcible confinement of a former Concordia University student.
Carriere played for the Hugh Boyd Trojans between 2006 and 2009 and was named junior provincial MVP in 2006.
The students, in their fourth year at McGill, were charged 15 months ago and continue to play for the McGill Redmen this season, according to the university's website.
The victim in the case was not able to return to school after the alleged attack and ultimately left Montreal. She is now living and studying in another province.
The university claims it only learned of the incident in May. The Montreal Gazette contacted McGill in the weeks following the alleged attack in September 2011.
Carriere, Ian Sheriff of Toronto, and Guillaume Tremblay of Calgary were all arrested April 26, 2012, in connection with the alleged attack on Sept. 9, 2011. They were arraigned July 4, 2012.
The night of the alleged attack, the woman and a friend went to a bar where they met two of the three accused men. The women went back to the players' apartment. That's when they were allegedly joined by the third football player. The victim woke up about six hours later with little recollection of what had happened.
In the following days, as her memory returned, she went to police to report she had been sexually assaulted, the victim's family told The Gazette. McGill's deputy provost of student life and learning, Olivier Dyens, said the university only learned about the charges in May.
"It didn't happen on the McGill campus and she wasn't a McGill student, so there was no way for us to know about it," he said in an interview Thursday. "Right now, all we know is that there was an alleged incident involving McGill students."
He said the university will wait for the outcome of the judicial process before deciding whether the three students should be charged under the students' code of conduct.
One option for students who violate the code is expulsion, he confirmed.
But by the time the case goes to trial and there's a verdict, the three football players will probably have graduated.
Dyens, who has been deputy provost three months, said that after the students were arrested, they told their coach, who advised them to tell their parents and get a lawyer.
The present coach of the team, Clinton Uttley, said he wasn't coach when the alleged incident happened.
For more stories, go to www.theprovince.com.
