New trial ordered in ex-Quebec junior hockey player's sexual assault case

Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial in a case involving ex-Quebec junior hockey player Noah Corson. A view of the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine courtroom during a guided tour of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial in a sexual assault case involving ex-Quebec junior hockey player Noah Corson.

The victim, 15, was allegedly assaulted in 2016 in Drummondville during group sex involving Corson and two other minors accused in the case.

A Quebec court judge found Corson, now 28, guilty, ruling he did not take all reasonable measures to verify the age of the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

In a ruling Thursday, the province’s highest court overturned the guilty verdict rendered by a judge in February 2024, determining he failed to consider evidence and testimony that supported Corson’s defence that it was an honest but mistaken belief the victim was the same age as him.

The other two accused, both 17, pleaded guilty in youth court.

Corson, the son of former NHL player Shayne Corson, was 18 at the time of the assault and played with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).

In May 2025, he was sentenced to two years less a day in jail, but had already appealed the verdict in the case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2026.