London police detective who closed Hockey Canada case without charges pressed on apparent gaps in probe

Globe and Mail

5 days ago

On his second day in the witness box at the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team, the now-retired police sergeant who was in charge of the initial criminal investigation was grilled by Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham about apparent gaps in his probe.
Under questioning from Ms. Cunningham, Mr. Newtown conceded that he heard that one of the accused players, Michael McLeod, invited a teammate to the room to engage in a 'three-way,' but never obtained the text messages they exchanged.
He admitted that he obtained surveillance footage from the bar in London, Ont., where the complainant and the players met prior to the alleged assault, but never watched the footage.
He acknowledged that he collected the clothing that was worn by the complainant on the night of the alleged assault, but he never sent it away for forensic testing.
And he conceded that he never filed any search warrants or production orders to try and obtain records from Hockey Canada, the sport's national governing body that had launched its own investigation into the alleged sexual assault.
London police detective told accused in Hockey Canada trial he had no plans to charge him in 2018
Mr. Newton closed the case without charges in February, 2019. The London Police Service reopened the investigation in 2022, after TSN broke the story that the complainant in the case – a woman known publicly as E.M. – had filed a lawsuit against Hockey Canada and unnamed members of the 2018 world junior team. The sports body settled that claim for an undisclosed sum and without the knowledge of the players.
In early 2024, London police charged Mr. McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote for allegedly sexually assaulting E.M. in a hotel room on June 19, 2018. Mr. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault. Each has pleaded not guilty.
Court has heard that E.M. met the players at a bar called Jack's in London after a Hockey Canada gala, where their world championship win earlier that year was celebrated. E.M. testified that she and Mr. McLeod left the bar after a night of drinking and dancing and had consensual sex in his hotel room.
In her version of events, Mr. McLeod invited his teammates to the room without her knowledge to engage in sex acts. The defence has asserted that E.M. is the one who told Mr. McLeod to invite his teammates to the room for a 'wild night' of sexual activity.
On Tuesday, court heard for the first time Mr. McLeod's account of this moment. The Crown – after calling Mr. Newton as a witness – played the retired officer's interview with Mr. McLeod for the court.
In Mr. McLeod's telling, after they finished having sex, he ordered food on his phone through UberEats – mozzarella sticks and chicken wings.
Mr. Newton asked: 'How did the guys know to come back to the room?'
'I told them I ordered some food,' Mr. McLeod said. 'And ah, I told them, like, I had a girl in the room.'
He told the officer he wasn't 'expecting' his teammates to come in.
Mr. Newton asked Mr. McLeod if it's possible the players were coming to the room because they thought a woman was providing sexual favours.
'I mean, like, I don't know how guys kept showing up because I don't remember,' he said.
On Wednesday, Ms. Cunningham also played for the courtroom video of Mr. Newton's interview with Mr. Formenton, as well as an audio recording of Mr. Newton's interview with Mr. Dubé.
In his interview, Mr. Formenton told the officer that he went to room 209 at the Delta Armouries hotel because he was contacted by Mr. McLeod.
'I got a text from Mikey – Mike McLeod – saying that there's a – a girl in the hotel room that like wants to have a threesome,' Mr. Formenton said.
The officer asked if Mr. McLeod sent this message to other people – Mr. Formenton said he thought it was just him – and whether Mr. Formenton still had the text message. The player said he didn't have the text anymore because he had a new phone.
(Earlier in the trial, court saw a message sent from Mr. McLeod's phone to the hockey team's 19-member group chat, which read: 'Who wants to be in a 3-way quick?' Another message, which court heard Mr. McLeod allegedly sent directly to a teammate, urged him to 'come to my room' if he wanted oral sex.)
Mr. Newton asked Mr. Formenton what his overall sense was about the events in the hotel room: 'Do you feel that that this girl was taken advantage of?'
The player replied that E.M. was the one 'instigating pretty much everything' and that she was acting under her own free will. 'Our sex was consensual,' he said.
The officer asked if E.M. would have been able to leave at any time – 'was anybody impeding her or stopping her from leaving?'
Said Mr. Formenton: 'No.'
Mr. Dubé told Mr. Newton that he went to the room because he was told there was food there.
He told the officer that when he came in the room, E.M. was naked, which he found shocking. Mr. Dubé said he was in the room only briefly and that throughout, E.M. was the instigator.
'She was chirping us for not doing anything with her, which I thought was weird. I hadn't seen that before,' he said. He told the officer that he received oral sex for a short time, but he withdrew because he thought it was a bad idea.
In each of Mr. Newton's interviews with the accused players, the men were accompanied by their lawyers. Mr. McLeod and Mr. Formenton were in lawyers' offices at the time.
Ms. Cunningham asked Mr. Newton if it was typical to not interview accused individuals at the police station – and if it was typical to have their lawyers present.
Mr. Newton conceded it was unusual, but he felt it was important to get the players' version of events on the record and this was a format that would allow the men to feel comfortable.