On November 1, 2014, Hugo died in tragic conditions. The young eight-year-old boy, himself a hockey player in the Dunkirk “Corsaires” under-9 team, was hit behind the ear by a puck taken out of the playing area while he was was on a bench near the stands, shortly before the end of a Division 1 match between Dunkirk and Reims.
10 years after the events, the Dunkirk criminal court sentenced the local club and the association which managed the ice rink to fines this Wednesday. 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, including 20,000 suspended, and the association which managed the Dunkerque club to 50,000 euros, including 30,000 euros. suspended.
The “relieved” family
During the hearing last month, the president insisted on the accidents already caused by the release of pucks 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 everyone’s responsibilities are determined,” their lawyer David Dhote reacted on Wednesday. “The ten years of proceedings were very long, we wondered whether prosecutions would 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,” he said. This ice rink was destroyed in 2019 and replaced by a more modern one.
