WARNING: This story includes reference to suicide.
Lawyers say a former Manitoba hockey coach who pleaded guilty in 2024 to luring and sexually assaulting a teenage player should be sent to prison for six years.
“This is a case about the profound wrongfulness and harmfulness of sexual offending against a child,” Crown attorney Larissa Campbell told provincial court Judge Jerilee Ryle during a sentencing hearing for Madison Biluk in a Winnipeg courtroom on Thursday, where the prosecution and defence jointly recommended a six-year sentence.
“This is also a sentencing about choices — choices made by the accused that have had, and will continue to have, a profound effect on the victim.”
Biluk, now 31, was charged in November 2023 for abuse court heard happened between October 2019 and February 2021, when she groomed and sexually exploited a player on her team.
Biluk was between 24 and 26 years old at the time, while the player was 15 and 16, an agreed statement of facts read in court said. The player’s identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
Court heard Biluk’s relationship with the player started with driving her to practices and taking her skating, but later involved late-night calls and private messages on Snapchat that included explicit photographs, as well as personal discussions about sex and relationships.
Biluk at one point told the player they shouldn’t pursue a relationship because she was her coach, but her behaviour quickly escalated and soon involved taking intimate and nude videos and photos with the girl, and kissing and touching the player sexually, the agreed statement of facts said.
WATCH | Lawyers want 6 years for ex-coach who sexually assaulted teen:
Lawyers want 6 years for ex-coach who sexually assaulted teen
Lawyers are asking for Madison Biluk, a former Manitoba hockey coach who pleaded guilty in 2024 to sexually assaulting and luring a teenage player, to be sent to prison for six years.
In a victim impact statement Campbell read in court, the player said what happened had a “severe” emotional impact on her life, leaving her with low self-worth, persistent mistrust, depression and anxiety that caused her to lose jobs and weakened her relationships with other people.
The player also said the cost of therapy “took a huge toll” on her family’s finances, and added she worries about running into Biluk.
“I am afraid of large public spaces for fear of seeing her or maybe somebody she knows,” the statement said.
“I feel anxious when I see somebody who resembles her.”
Fake Snapchat account
By spring of 2020, the girl no longer wanted to be in a relationship with Biluk but continued to meet with her to engage sexually, which Campbell said was because the teen “was emotionally attached to the accused, and felt that this was the only way to keep [her] in her life.”
When the girl started to move on and pursue relationships with people closer to her own age, court heard Biluk made a fake Snapchat account to send disparaging comments about the teen’s new girlfriend to the teen’s other friends.
Court heard Biluk and the player had ceased all contact by February 2021. But the teen, who had confided in Biluk that she was depressed and that she’d been sexually abused by a trusted adult, continued to struggle.
Biluk is shown in a 2024 file photo outside a Winnipeg court. (CBC)
That resulted in a suicide attempt in early February 2023. Court heard that around that time, the girl called Biluk asking for help “and suggested that the accused had played a role in her state of mental health,” Campbell said. About a week later, the girl ended up at the Crisis Response Centre following another suicide attempt.
Biluk’s lawyer said Thursday his client feels great remorse and never meant to hurt the girl, telling the judge the situation “morphed from initially altruistic wishes into something that unfortunately became criminal.”
Promise to ‘make amends’
When given the chance to speak in court, Biluk apologized to the player for the harm she caused, and to everyone else affected by what she did.
“I’m just going to keep trying to improve myself every day and make amends however I can,” said Biluk, who sat in the courtroom gallery with her family during sentencing arguments.
The abuse came to light after the girl posted a TikTok video in October 2023 detailing her experience with Biluk. That video came to the attention of police.
The teen later shared with police a number of photos and videos of her and Biluk together, as well as messages where Biluk referred to their relationship as “one of the most risky things in my life.”
After her arrest, Biluk said she still cared for the player but that she was shocked by the TikTok video the teen posted. Biluk described the girl as a “pathological liar,” the agreed facts said.
Biluk, who appeared in court Thursday with her right arm in a sling, is expected to return to court to be sentenced and taken into custody near the end of March, after completing scheduled surgery, court heard. She is no longer coaching and remains out on bail under conditions.
Court heard Biluk coached hockey from 2019 through 2023, and during that time drew concerns on several occasions from coaching staff who said her behaviour went beyond the professional coach-and-player relationship, Campbell said. Those concerns resulted in several warnings but did not curb her behaviour.
After her contact with the player ended, Biluk continued coaching in Alberta and Manitoba, where her behaviour again raised concerns about inappropriate boundaries with players.
While there were investigations into her behaviour in both provinces, no further charges were pursued, Campbell said.
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