Ivan Pravilov
Ivan Pravilov was a Ukrainian ice hockey coach. He coached a Ukrainian hockey school, Druzhba-78, before he moved to the United States in 2007. Pravilov trained a number of young players and National Hockey League players in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, including Dainius Zubrus and Andrei Zyuzin. Pravilov was accused of fondling a 14-year-old whom he coached in January 2012, was arrested for having sexual contact with a teenager, indicted on child-molestation charges, and placed in a Philadelphia jail. He committed suicide by hanging at 49 years of age in his jail cell, on February 10, 2012.
Coaching career
Pravilov was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He ran and coached a Ukrainian hockey school, from the 1980s, and a youth hockey team named Druzhba-78, until he came to the United States in 2007 to coach ice hockey players in the US. He was a mentor of a number of NHL and U.S. college players. He trained teenagers and professionals, including Dainius Zubrus and Andrei Zyuzin, in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area.A former student of Druzhba-78 claimed in January 2012 that Pravilov had physically abused members of Druzhba-78.
Criminal sexual abuse allegations
Pravilov was accused of fondling a 14-year-old Ukrainian boy, whom he coached in hockey, on January 3, 2012, after he had invited the teenager to his apartment in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, from the child's host home in Wilmington, Delaware. He was arrested for having sexual contact with a teenage boy, indicted on child-molestation charges, and on January 19, 2012, placed in a Philadelphia jail, the Federal Detention Center. A week later, it was announced that he was wanted on an Interpol warrant and charged with traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and transporting a person to engage in criminal sexual activity.Suicide
Pravilov was found to be unresponsive in his jail cell on February 10, 2012, at 3:00 am. By 3:45, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. A preliminary FBI investigation suggested that he had committed suicide.The cause of the 49-year-old's death being suicide by hanging was confirmed by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office on 22 February 2012.