Based on coverage from CBC, The Peterborough Examiner, CHAT News Today, and Brandon Sun.
A former Quebec junior hockey player who was sentenced to jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old will get a new trial after Quebec’s top court overturned his conviction.
This decision comes amid ongoing discussions about accountability in junior hockey, a topic recently highlighted by the Nova Scotia RCMP's charges against three youths in a hockey hazing incident.
Noah Corson, who played for the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the QMJHL and is the son of former Montreal Canadiens centre Shayne Corson, was convicted in February 2024. He was sentenced in May 2025 to two years less a day in prison, a term that typically keeps a sentence in the provincial system rather than federal penitentiary time.
Quebec Court of Appeal orders new trial
Quebec’s Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that Corson’s guilty verdict can’t stand and ordered a new trial.
According to the court, the trial judge failed to consider evidence and testimony that supported Corson’s defence: that he honestly but mistakenly believed the complainant was the same age as him. The complainant’s identity is protected by a publication ban.
The decision doesn’t declare Corson innocent. It means the conviction is set aside and the case goes back for a new trial where the evidence will be heard again.
Drummondville 2016 allegations and the ages involved
The case centres on an alleged sexual assault in 2016 in Drummondville, Que. The complainant was 15 at the time.
The allegation involves group sex with Corson and two other minors who were also accused. Corson was 18 at the time of the encounter.
Those other two accused were both 17 and later pleaded guilty in youth court, according to the Canadian Press report.
Trial judge’s ruling on “reasonable measures”
At trial, a Quebec court judge found Corson guilty, concluding he did not take “all reasonable measures” to verify the complainant’s age.
That finding mattered because Corson’s defence was tied to his belief about the complainant’s age. The Court of Appeal said the trial judge didn’t properly weigh evidence and testimony that could support the idea that Corson held an honest but mistaken belief the complainant was his age.
That gap, the appeal court found, was serious enough to overturn the conviction and require a new trial.
What happens next for Noah Corson
Corson, now 28, had already appealed his conviction by the time he was sentenced in May 2025.
With the conviction overturned, the legal process now moves toward a new trial, where the Crown and defence will have another chance to argue the case. For the complainant, it also means having to go through another court process tied to events that happened nearly a decade ago.
The underlying facts of the allegation haven’t changed. What has changed is the Court of Appeal’s view that the first trial judge did not properly consider key defence evidence, making a redo necessary under Quebec law.
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