Hockey Canada trial verdict date set for July 24 as defence questions accuser's credibility
Digging through the testimony of a woman accusing Team Canada hockey players of sexual assault was, their lawyers say, 'an exercise in fact-finding frustration.'
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In their closing arguments so far at the high-profile trial, defence teams for some players described to the judge how the complainant gave well-rehearsed, 'revisionist' answers to suit her 'agenda.'
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'When you read through this witness's evidence, similarly to listening to it, it is an exercise in fact-finding frustration at every turn,' said Megan Savard, defence lawyer for goaltender Carter Hart.
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'The manner of testifying obscures rather than illuminates the core of what she did, why she did it, what others did, how she felt and how and why she changed her account over time.'
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Savard said the way the woman testified was deliberate. 'The goal is to obscure because this witness knows that the truth will not serve her agenda, which is to see her non-consent story accepted and believed.'
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Savard made her comments at the conclusion of her argument Tuesday as the trial is in the home-stretch. Two more defence teams and the Crown still have to make arguments, but Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia set July 24 as the date for her ultimate decision.
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Hart, 26, Michael McLeod, 27, Alex Formenton, 25, Dillon Dube, 26, and Cal Foote, 26, all members of the 2018 championship team, have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in connection with what happened in McLeod's room at the Delta Armouries hotel in London on June 18 and 19, 2018, where they were staying for a Hockey Canada gala and golf tournament. McLeod also has pleaded not guilty to a second charge of sexual assault for being a party to an offence.
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Consent is the central issue in the trial, which began in late April and has explored what happened at Jack's bar on Richmond Row, where McLeod met the woman – who was 20 at the time and whose identity is protected by court order – before bringing her back to the hotel for consensual sex.
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The woman has testified she was intoxicated and forced into unwanted sexual activities when some of the team – up to 10 at one point – assembled in McLeod's room. The accused players have testified the woman was the aggressor, begging them for sexual activity. And, they say, all sex was consensual.
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Savard, Formenton's lawyer Daniel Brown and Dube's defence lawyer Lisa Carnelos all questioned the woman's credibility, pointing out she was often recalling what she was 'feeling' or 'thinking' or making assumptions based on her own character assessment.
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