Hockey Canada complainant says ‘it could be possible' she pulled player into bathroom where alleged assault happened

Hamilton Spectator

13-05-2025

The complainant in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case agreed Monday, 'it could be possible' she pulled player Alex Formenton into a hotel room bathroom where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, as his lawyer suggested she was far more active in the encounter than she has told the jury.
The woman also faced questions on her sixth day of
cross-examination
from player Dillon Dubé's lawyer, who highlighted that she didn't disclose the alleged sexual assaults by multiple members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team in a London, Ont. hotel room when she called and texted her best friend in the hours following the alleged incident.
Alex Formenton leaves the courthouse in London, Ont. on Friday, May 2, 2025 with his lawyers Daniel Brown, left, and Hilary Dudding, right.
Instead, the complainant texted the friend that she had been 'a little overdramatic' when she first called her in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when she had shared few details about what had happened. She texted that she felt 'really guilty and mad at myself for letting that s—- happen' and that she felt 'dirty and used' afterward.
She texted she 'never wanted to do this' to her boyfriend, who is now her fiancé.
'I didn't want to admit it was a sexual assault,' she testified Monday. 'I didn't want to say those words, because then it would be true.'
It was the seventh day of testimony overall for the complainant, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban. The woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by several members of the hockey team in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when she was 20 years old. The alleged incident happened after the woman met player Michael McLeod at Jack's Bar and agreed to go back to his hotel where they had consensual sex in a room he shared with Formenton, only for other players to show up afterward.
McLeod, Formenton, Dubé, Carter Hart and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty. The Crown has alleged that McLeod later had intercourse with the complainant a second time in the hotel room's bathroom; that Formenton separately had intercourse with the complainant in the bathroom; that McLeod, Hart, and Dubé obtained oral sex from the woman; that Dubé slapped her naked buttocks, and that Foote did the splits over her head and his genitals 'grazed' her face.
In her text to her friend on June 19, 2018, the complainant stated that McLeod had been 'such a jerk,' that he had all his friends in the hotel room 'and it was just a bad situation. I shouldn't have put myself in that position.'
On Monday, Formenton's lawyer Daniel Brown wrapped his cross-examination as he asked the complainant if she led his client into the hotel room bathroom.
'I don't believe I was leading him in there, I know I got up to go to the bathroom, and I knew he was following behind, so I guess that means I was leading, sure,' she said.
When Brown told her that a witness is expected to say she actually pulled Formenton into the bathroom, the complainant replied: 'I don't recall it happening like that, but I guess it could be possible.'
'That's lawyer stuff, I don't know what I was supposed to do,' the woman testified Wednesday, explaining why her lawsuit against Hockey Canada
'That's lawyer stuff, I don't know what I was supposed to do,' the woman testified Wednesday, explaining why her lawsuit against Hockey Canada
The complainant has testified she recalls hearing men around her in the room saying someone should have sex with her, while the defence has countered that she was demanding to have sex with players. The woman has also testified she doesn't recall any conversation with Formenton, but that he put a condom on before they had intercourse.
Brown suggested to the woman that she said and did many things to his client in the bathroom, including: touching Formenton's crotch and saying she would help him get an erection, pulling down his pants and underwear, saying he didn't have to wear a condom because she was on birth control, and apologizing because she had sunburns on her chest due to sunbathing nude.
The complainant confirmed she was on birth control at the time and had been sunbathing nude in her backyard, but said she didn't recall saying or doing any of the things Brown put to her.
'I have no memory of any conversation with him,' she testified.
The complainant has maintained she was very drunk at Jack's and back at the hotel room, where she alleges the men placed a bedsheet on the floor and asked her to fondle herself, to perform oral sex on them as she was slapped and spat on, and to have vaginal intercourse. The woman has said she engaged in the sexual activity
while adopting a 'porn star persona' as a coping mechanism
while in a room surrounded by men she didn't know.
By the end of the night, the men had dispersed, and it was just McLeod, Formenton and the complainant still in the room. Brown pointed to the woman's statement to police in 2018 in which she said she thought Formenton was leaning in to give her a hug before she left. The lawyer suggested she was upset that he didn't, and that the men seemed to just want her to leave, as they had to get to bed.
'You felt a bit scorned that neither of the men left in the room were really paying too much attention when you left,' Brown said.
'You were expecting them to give you a hug, and to thank you for the night, and to walk you out to the lobby. And when that didn't happen, you felt hurt.'
The complainant disagreed.
'I remember feeling that that was odd, I'd never had an encounter that kind of ends in that type of way, but I wasn't scorned about it,' she said.
Dillon
Dubé
arrives at the courthouse in London, Ont., Friday, May 2, 2025 with his lawyers Lisa Carnelos, left, and
Julie Santarossa, far left
.
'I definitely felt disrespected, but I felt disrespected the whole night, so I'm not sure why I thought the end would be any different.'
As she left the hotel, she told the jury she called her best friend, 'crying uncontrollably' and struggling to get the words out about what had happened. 'I think I told her enough for her to realize that something not normal had happened,' the complainant said.
Dubé's lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, pointed out to the complainant that she didn't mention in those initial texts or phone call with her friend that she had been sexually assaulted or that she had been scared. The complainant maintained she was still processing everything at the time.
'I didn't want to admit it was as bad as it was,' she testified. 'I didn't want to think about it.'
Text messages between the complaint and her best friend on June 19, 2018, the day after the alleged sexual assaults.
Picking up on a thread that was explored by other defence lawyers last week, Carnelos suggested that the woman was upset that few players in the hotel room were taking her up on her offer to have sex, and would become 'taunting' or 'threatening' in nature as she would say to them: 'Well, I'm going to leave then.'
The complainant said she wasn't sure, but that she may have made a comment about leaving.
Carnelos suggested that at least one player consoled the complainant, telling her that many of the men had girlfriends and that's why they didn't want to engage with her.
'I don't recall hearing that at all,' she said. 'Again, I'd be confused as to why they were even in the room in the first place.'
Carnelos suggested to the woman that, in response to the complainant asking 'Are you going to f—- me or play golf?' one player slapped her buttocks in a 'playful' manner; the defence lawyer suggested this caused the complainant to say: 'Are you going to f—- me or just play?'
The woman denied that that happened, saying she recalled the slapping occurred while she was performing oral sex on several men on the bedsheet on the floor, and later while performing oral sex on McLeod on the bed.
She testified she felt like she was the focus of the room, as 'just an object … there for their entertainment.' She said she was surrounded by the men as they talked around her, making comments about her and what they'd like to do to her.
Carnelos suggested that some of them were actually talking about totally different topics and not paying any attention to her.
'In your head, you thought or wanted to be the focus of the room, but what I'm putting to you is these boys were having fun amongst themselves, separate and apart from your existence, do you agree or disagree?' the lawyer asked the complainant.
The woman disagreed, saying she wasn't trying to be the centre of attention.
'If they wanted their own conversations, I'm sure they all had other hotel rooms they could have gone to do that in,' she said.