Druzhba-78

Ice hockey team in Kharkiv, Ukraine

Druzbha-78 (Ukrainian: Дружба-78; English: Friendship-78) was an U-18 ice hockey team based in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Sexual abuse allegations and suicide

In January 2012, the coach and owner of the team, Ivan Pravilov was accused of fondling a 14-year-old Ukrainian player whom he had invited to his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He was arrested, and placed in a Federal Detention Center. Days later he was found to be unresponsive at around 3:00 am; by 3:45, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Evidence suggested that he had committed suicide by hanging in his jail cell.^[1] This was confirmed by the city medical examiner's office on 23 February 2012.^[2]

A former student of Druzhba-78 had claimed in January 2012 that Pravilov had physically and sexually abused members of Druzhba-78.^[3]

Notable NHL alumni

Dainius Zubrus
Andrei Zyuzin
Auston Matthews

References

^ Hockey coach charged with assaulting youths found dead in cell, Philly.com (10 February 2012)
^ Autopsy:Charged Ukrainian coach committed suicide, Kyiv Post (23 February 2012)
^ Former student:Ivan Pravilov used fists and hockey sticks to beat us Archived 2014-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, NewsWorks (23 January 2012)