Vancouver Island hockey star sentenced on voyeurism charges
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 | 5:23 PM PT
CBC News
A former Junior A hockey player was sentenced in a Vancouver Island courtroom to a conditional discharge and three years' probation Friday.
Harrison Zolnierczyk, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism. His former Alberni Valley Bulldogs teammate, Bradley Harding, also pleaded guilty but will be sentenced later.
The charges stem from an incident in 2006 when the two set up a webcam in Harding's bedroom and secretly recorded his then 17-year-old girlfriend giving him oral sex. Zolnierczyk posted it on an unnamed website.
The victim was in the courtroom Friday, occasionally crying as her victim impact statement was read aloud.
Harding and Zolnierczyk "completely degraded and humiliated me," she wrote. "They can go on with their lives, but what they did will affect me for the rest of my life. I did absolutely nothing to deserve this."
In her statement, the girl said people in Port Alberni continue to judge her, and blame her for ruining Zolnierczyk's future.
Zolnierczyk attends Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League school in Providence, R.I., on a full hockey scholarship. In a written statement released by the university, officials said he has been dismissed from the hockey team for the season but will remain enrolled in the university.
Corrections and Clarifications
- Harrison Zolnierczyk pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism, not to child pornography as previously reported. And he posted a sex video on an unnamed website but not YouTube. June 11, 2008 | 8:22 p.m. ET
