The criminal court of Dunkirk, France, on Wednesday sentenced the local hockey club and the association which managed the ice rink to fines, ten years after the death of a child hit by a puck in the head during a match .
The court found the two associations guilty, prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, finding faults of recklessness and breaches of security obligations.
On the other hand, he acquitted the French Ice Hockey Federation (FFHG), considering that there were not enough elements to characterize a fault on its part.
In accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions, the court sentenced the Dunkerque Détente association, which managed the ice rink, to a fine of 50,000 euros (74,000 Canadian dollars) including 20,000 (30,000 Canadian dollars) suspended and the one which managed the Dunkirk club at 50,000 euros, including 30,000 euros (45,000 Canadian dollars) with reprieve.
On November 1, 2014, Hugo, 8 years old, himself a hockey player in the Dunkirk “Corsaires” under-9 team, was hit behind the ear by the puck that came out of the playing area then that he was on a bench near the stands, shortly before the end of a Division 1 match between Dunkirk and Reims.
During the hearing last month, the president insisted on the accidents already caused by pucks flying out before this tragedy in this same enclosure, in the absence, in particular, of nets.
The prosecutor, for her part, apologized to Hugo’s family for the length of the procedure, saying that this delay was “not normal”.
The family is “relieved that this decision puts an end to ten years of proceedings, that the responsibilities of each person are determined,” their lawyer David Dhote reacted on Wednesday.
“The ten years of proceedings were very long, we wondered if prosecutions were going to take place,” he stressed.
For the lawyer of the Dunkirk hockey club, Pierre Cortier, this decision, however, leaves “a taste of unfinished business”, due to the absence of proceedings against the town hall, owner of the ice rink which, according to him, was aware of its dilapidation. , and the release of the FFHG.
“The two associations could do little to effectively organize security, particularly with regard to these rickety railings which allowed the puck to pass through,” he said.
This ice rink was destroyed in 2019 and replaced by a more modern one.
