Female youth hockey coach faces sexual assault, child porn charges after ex-player comes forward
"Sport is supposed to be safe, so it's difficult for the entire community."
A female Winnipeg hockey coach is facing several criminal charges over the alleged exploitation and abuse of a former player.
Twenty-eight-year-old Madison Biluk has been charged with 15 offences, which include sexual assault, sexual interference, assault with a weapon, sexual exploitation, luring a person under the age of 16, possession of child pornography and more.
The incidents allegedly started when the accused was the coach of the victim, who was a teenager at the time. The alleged abuse spanned from 2019 to 2021 and stretched beyond the span that the accused coached the victim.
"This wasn't just limited to a rink scenario," said Const. Dani McKinnon, public information officer with Winnipeg police. "This was a relationship that extended after hours over the course of this time with solitary meetings between the two people."
Police were made aware of the misconduct last month when someone within the local hockey community tipped them off about a coach having a "sexually exploitative" relationship with a player. Biluk, who was a coach with Hockey Manitoba from 2018 up until this year, is accused of “grooming and gaining the trust," of the female victim, according to police.
In a joint statement between Hockey Canada and Hockey Manitoba, the two organizations became aware of the misconduct via a video that made the rounds online which detailed the abuse allegations.
"We take allegations of this nature extremely seriously and the individual is ineligible to participate in Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs, including as a coach, guest coach or volunteer while the complaint process is ongoing," a statement on behalf of the two organizations read.
Interlake Minor Hockey director Kyle Willis indicated that the post which was made by the survivor.
"We took it super serious, it's a child and a coach," he said.
"The reaction was kind of shocking, but there wasn't really time for anyone to be shocked because we had to make sure that the survivor that put the post up was taken seriously and everything was going through the right channels, to the right people and it did."
