Former Ontario junior hockey player sentenced to prison in child exploitation and trafficking case

Dale Deon is shown in a photo while a member of the Peoria Rivermen of the Southern Professional Hockey League. (Peoria Rivermen)

A former junior, university and minor professional hockey player was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison during a court hearing in Brantford, Ont., on Friday, after he admitted to possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material and forcing a woman to perform sexual services for money.

Dale Deon, a former defenceman from Georgetown, Ont., played the 2024-25 season with the Binghamton Black Bears in the Federal Prospects Hockey League, a low-level minor professional league.

He has also played with the Brampton Capitals and Milton Icehawks in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, Shawinigan and Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and for Nipissing University and Brock University.

On Friday, Deon’s hockey background became a footnote in a criminal proceeding built around an agreed statement of facts that detailed a Brantford police investigation involving child sexual abuse and exploitation material, human trafficking and efforts to contact victims and witnesses despite a court order not to do so.

According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court, the Brantford Police Service began investigating the 33-year-old Deon after a complainant contacted police on June 28, 2025, and told officers that Deon had child pornography on his computer.

On Aug. 19, 2025, members of the Brantford Police Internet Child Exploitation Unit executed search warrants at Deon’s residence and seized several electronic devices, including cell phones, laptops and external hard drives.

While at the home, police conducted a preliminary forensic search of Deon’s laptop and found several file folders with titles indicative of child pornography, according to the statement.

Police also viewed a video that depicted child pornography.

26,000 images, 3,000 videos

A further forensic examination found what the statement described as a large quantity of images and videos.

Investigators found as many as 26,000 images and 3,000 videos.

The statement described some of the material as being the most severe on a scale used to classify child sexual abuse material.

During a bail hearing in Brantford court on Oct. 25, 2025, Crown Attorney Renee Mahoney said that Deon had told investigators that he started watching child pornography in his 20s and that it “was like watching a car accident. It’s hard to look away.”

On Friday, Deon pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation material, making that material available, human trafficking, procuring, receiving a financial or material benefit from human trafficking, and breaching a release order.

Deon’s lawyer Kaley Hepburn declined to comment.

According to the agreed statement of facts, the police investigation revealed that in 2022, Deon showed the complainant child sexual abuse and exploitation material through videos and images.

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, later provided an additional statement to police in which she said that in 2024 Deon forced her to perform sexual services with strangers for money.

The complainant told police that Deon coached her on how to pose for photographs, took pictures of her and then created advertisements for LeoList, a classified-advertising website.

The statement said Deon made arrangements with clients, determined rates for specified sexual services and transported the complainant to meet the clients.

She then gave the money she earned from sex work to Deon, according to the statement.

After Deon was released from custody on Oct. 30, 2025, following his arrest, a court order barred him from having any contact with two people named in the court record.

He was also ordered not to be in the presence of anyone under 18 unless under the direct supervision of his surety Susan Deon, who is his mother.

Within months, police received information that Deon had breached the terms of his release, the statement said.

On Jan. 19, 2026, Brantford police were told Deon’s mother had provided him with a cell phone.

The next day, police learned that Susan Deon had contacted a witness and asked her to contact her son.

In March 2026, members of the Brantford Police ICE Unit determined Susan Deon’s cell phone had repeatedly contacted two people named in the release order from the time of Deon’s arrest until March 2026, according to the statement.

The document also described continued contact between Deon and the complainant after his release.

In May 2026, the complainant told investigators that Deon had reached out to her by phone in January 2026, saying he missed her, was sorry and wanted to have a child with her.

According to the statement, the complainant said Deon appeared to “forgive her” for “getting him in trouble” and said Deon repeatedly insisted that she become pregnant with his child.

He believed that a pregnancy would “make the criminal stuff go away,” and told her that if they had a baby, it would give him “something for him to look forward to when he got out.”

In February, the complainant learned she was pregnant.

After that, Deon’s behaviour changed, according to the statement.

He told her she would have the baby, raise it on her own, tell no one about it and that he wanted nothing to do with the child.

The agreed statement of facts noted that Deon’s guilty plea does not settle another complaint made by a second person.

That complaint “falls outside the jurisdiction of this court and remains unadjudicated.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:

• Call 911 if you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety.
• The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres' website has a comprehensive list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling.
• The Ending Violence Association of Canada‘s website has links to helplines, support services and locations across Canada that offer sexual assault kits.
• Indian Residential School Survivors Society crisis lines: [phone] or [phone] (24/7)
• Toronto Rape Crisis Centre crisis line: [phone] (24/7)
• Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: [phone] (24/7)
• Trans Lifeline: [phone]
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988 (24/7)
• Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre for current and former Canadian Armed Forces members: [phone]
• Read about your rights as a victim on the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime website.