Capitals' Taylor Raddysh testifies in Hockey Canada trial about texts from ‘that night in London'

New York Times

30-04-2025

LONDON, Ont. — Taylor Raddysh testified Wednesday in the Hockey Canada assault trial, telling jurors about text messages he exchanged with Michael McLeod, one of the five defendants. In one of the texts from the early-morning hours of June 19, 2019, McLeod tells Raddysh to come to his room if he wants oral sex.
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McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote are facing sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged incident in which a 20-year-old woman said she was sexually assaulted by multiple players in a London, Ont., hotel room in June 2018 while the players and other members of the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team were in town for a Hockey Canada event celebrating their championship run. All five players pleaded not guilty when arraigned in Ontario Superior Court last week.
Raddysh, who now plays for the Washington Capitals, took the stand just hours before his team was set to play in Game 5 of its first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, testifying remotely from the Capitals' facility in Arlington, Va.
He was the first player from that 2018 roster to testify in this trial.
Raddysh was asked about the dynamics of the 2018 World Juniors team.
'We got along fairly well,' he said. 'It's obviously a fun tournament to be a part of, and as a kid you really want to be on that team when you grow up. It's an honor to be able to play there.'
After identifying Dubé as the team's captain, Cunningham asked Raddysh whether that position has a role off the ice.
'Just a leader,' Raddysh said. 'Someone who … leads by example and kind of gets the group together.'
He appeared visibly nervous when answering the slate of questions from Crown Attorney Meaghan Cunningham about his memories from the night of June 18 and into the early hours of June 19, 2018. He told Cunningham several times that he did not recall certain details and that even consulting the transcripts of what he told investigators previously would not help to refresh his memory.
He told Cunningham that he did not recall coming back to the hotel that night and was not totally clear on interactions he had with others upon his return. He said in reading a transcript of his interview with London Police in August 2022, that he told police both McLeod and Boris Katchouk knocked on his hotel room door at one point. Raddysh said that he subsequently went to McLeod's room, where he remembered McLeod, Katchouk and 'a woman' being present. He said that he was 'pretty sure' she was on the bed when he arrived but that he did not recall whether the woman was clothed, how she was positioned on the bed or whether she said anything to him. He said he had some memory of going back to his room and, though he was not '100 percent' sure, he said he believed he was in McLeod's room for only 'a very short time.'
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However, Raddysh clearly detailed elements of text exchanges between him and McLeod, as well as a group chat that contained 19 members of the 2018 World Juniors team.
Raddysh testified that he was one of the members who received a text message from McLeod that was sent to the 19-member group at 2:10 a.m.:
who wants to be in 3 way quick
209-mikey
Raddysh said he didn't recall when he first noticed those messages but identified both McLeod and Carter Hart as participants in the chat. Hart replied at 2:19: I'm in
At 2:15 a.m., prior to Hart's response to the group chat, McLeod sent Raddysh two text messages:
Come to my room
If u want a gummer
Raddysh said he did not recall when he first saw the messages. When asked what he understood a 'gummer' to mean, he answered that he understood it to mean 'oral sex.' Raddysh did not respond to either of the above messages.
Jurors were shown pictures of the text messages as well. Raddysh told Cunningham that he took screenshots of the messages.
Prior to Raddysh's testimony, London Police detective Tiffany Waque continued her third day on the stand, showing jurors a number of surveillance videos and videos from players from the night of the alleged incident.
The videos showed the complainant dancing in a tightly packed crowd at Jack's Bar close to McLeod. Shortly after, according to surveillance footage, she is approached by Dubé, who begins to dance with her and appears to place his arm around her back, while McLeod dances behind the complainant.
A few minutes later, according to the surveillance video, as McLeod and the complainant are dancing, Brett Howden moves close behind her and dances with his hands in the air. Then, with the complainant sandwiched between them, McLeod appears to reach an arm around Howden's shoulders and hugs him.
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Waque also showed the jury a selfie-style video taken by McLeod in which several members of the World Juniors team packed closely together, arms around each other, singing along to a remixed dance version of 'Hey Baby,' a song that was played each time the Canadian team scored at the 2018 World Juniors.
Sometime after 1:20 a.m., McLeod and the complainant left Jack's, according to surveillance video. They arrived in a cab at the Delta hotel around 1:45 a.m.
Surveillance video from the early-morning hours of June 19 showed players from the team returning to the Delta hotel at different times after 2:20 a.m. The last players shown to arrive were Max Comtois, Colton Point and Dubé, who was shirtless, shortly before 3:15 a.m.
Jurors also saw a pair of videos taken by McLeod that show the complainant during the early-morning hours of June 19, the contents of which have previously been reported on by multiple news outlets.
In the first video, taken at 3:25 a.m., the complainant appears clothed on camera.
'Hey, you're OK with this though, right?' she is asked by a voice beyond the camera. Several other male voices can be heard in the background.
'Yeah,' she says, looking up.
'You're OK with this?' the male voice asks again, quickly.
'I'm OK,' she says.
'OK,' the man says.
In the second video, identified as being taken at 4:26 a.m., the complainant is shown holding a towel around her body.
'It was all consensual. Are you recording me?' she says, quickly.
'Yeah,' says a voice behind the camera.
'OK, good,' she says.
'This was all consensual. You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it. It was fine. It was all consensual. I am so sober. That's why I can't do this right now.'
The jury was then shown surveillance videos of the complainant walking through the lobby and leaving the hotel shortly after 4:46 a.m. She paces outside of the hotel, makes a phone call, and then gets into the back seat of an Uber. An image of a receipt from that ride showed that she arrived at her destination at 5:08 a.m.
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The Crown also explained to the jury that they were planning to show multiple other exhibits of group chat messages from after the alleged incident on June 26 amongst 11 members of the team — Hart, Foote, Dubé, Comtois, McLeod, Howden, Formenton, Drake Batherson, Sam Steel, Tyler Steenbergen and Jake Bean — that were provided by USB from Batherson to London Police. The Crown told jurors that they will hear more about the content of those group chat messages through future witness testimony.
The Crown also showed jurors multiple photos of the hotel room where the alleged incident took place, including interior photos that showed the orientation of the two beds in the room, the bathroom and the exit into the hallway.
On Thursday morning, Raddysh will continue testimony as a Crown witness. Prior to Wednesday's adjournment, Cunningham asked Raddysh about events following the alleged incident, including a text exchange that took place on June 26, 2018.
'Bully just called me,' Raddysh texted McLeod. 'Said there's an investigation.'
Raddysh told the court that 'Bully' likely referred to Shawn Bullock, a member of Hockey Canada's staff.
When asked by Cunningham what the 'investigation' he referred to was about, Raddysh replied: 'That night in London.'
— The Athletic's Dan Robson contributed reporting remotely from Toronto
(Photo of Taylor Raddysh by Justin Berl / Getty Images)