MONTREAL, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Three student athletes accused of sexual assault have quit the McGill University football team after the 15-month-old charges were made public, officials say.
The students had continued to play for the Redmen until news of the charges was published Oct. 31, The (Montreal) Gazette reported Monday.
Head Coach Clint Utley responded only "they quit" when asked in an email why Brenden Carriere, Ian Sheriff and Guillaume Tremblay were no longer listed on the Redmen team roster.
McGill officials refused to provide further details.
The students are charged with assaulting a former Concordia University student in September 2011 at the players' off-campus apartment. They were arrested in April 2012 and arraigned in July 2012.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Quebec on Dec. 18.
McGill's failure to take disciplinary action against the students after they were charged has ired a number of campus groups, including the Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students' Society and the Union for Gender Empowerment.
UGE charged the university's lack of action appeared to condone a "systemic rape culture" on campus. The organization had launched a petition demanding disciplinary action against the students.
The sexual assault center charged the university "acts only when its reputation is at stake."
"It has become increasingly apparent that McGill fails to address sexual assault in any meaningful way," the center said.
Jonathan Mooney, president of the Post-Graduate Students' Society, accused university officials of demonstrating a "dismissive" attitude in responding to media reports of the assault.
Ollivier Dyens, McGill's deputy provost for student life and learning, said recently the university hadn't taken action against the students because the victim wasn't from McGill and the alleged assault didn't happen on campus. The university was waiting for the outcome of the students' trial before deciding whether to charge them under the student's code of conduct, he said.
