A Kamloops hockey player is speaking out about the relationship that developed with her coach, who has been convicted of sexual exploitation.
Chantelle Petrie was 15 when the intimate relationship began with Heidi Ferber, 39. Now 18, Petrie wants others in similar situations to know it's not their fault.
“Maybe for every three people that backlash, there’s two that it saves a life,” Petrie told CFJC News. “As long as I’m helping someone, that’s all that matters.”
Petrie requested that a publication ban on her name be lifted, reports Global News, and a judge complied last week.
Petrie said she saw Ferber as a role model. Their relationship began in November 2010 and ended in July 2011 when Petrie told her mother and a counsellor.
"It changes you as a player," she said to Kamloops This Week. "I was always positive and liked to motivate people. I started to get angry on the ice. I had to look at the root of the problem — it was this.”
Petrie, now 18, told CBC News: "I wasn't the person who did anything wrong. I was young, I didn't know any better, but it's hard."
Petrie now lives in Calgary and plays with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans.
Ferber has pleaded guilty to charges of sexual exploitation and sexual interference with a person under 16. She will be sentenced on April 2.
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