What we learned in the first week of the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial

Hamilton Spectator

02-05-2025

LONDON, Ont. — The high-profile trial of five professional hockey players accused of sexual assault will wrap up its first week on Friday, as the specific allegations against the players were made public.
Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a then-20-year-old woman in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early morning of June 19, 2018. McLeod, who met the complainant at Jack's Bar and returned to his hotel with her, has also pleaded not guilty to a second charge of being a party to a sexual assault. The complainant's identity is covered by a standard publication ban.
The players, who now range in age from 25 to 27, were members of Canada's 2018 world junior championship team, and were in London at the time of the alleged incident to attend the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event and to receive their rings for winning the championship. All but Formenton were playing in the NHL at the time of their arrests in January 2024.
The trial is playing out in the London courthouse's largest courtroom, where each player is seated at a separate table with their legal teams. The jury of nine women and five men has been told the trial is expected to last up to eight weeks.
The proceedings have also been hit with delays; on Tuesday, the jury was sent home early due to malfunctioning video equipment partly caused by the stifling temperature in the courtroom, which has since been rectified. 'It's too hot in here, and the equipment isn't working properly,' Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia told the jury.
And then on Thursday, the trial didn't sit at all after a juror called in sick.
Here's what the jury has learned in week one of the trial.
The Crown outlined the specific allegations against the players
In her opening statement to the jury on Monday, Crown attorney Heather Donkers alleged McLeod had vaginal intercourse with the complainant; Formenton engaged in intercourse as well, but in the hotel room bathroom; McLeod, Hart and Dubé obtained oral sex; Dubé slapped the complainant's naked buttocks; and Foote did the 'splits' over the woman while she lay on the ground, 'grazing his genitals over her face.'
All without her consent, the Crown alleges.
McLeod's second charge relates to an allegation that he encouraged his teammates to engage in sexual acts with the complainant when he knew she wasn't consenting.
Michael McLeod inviting teammates to his room
Text messages entered into evidence show McLeod messaging his teammates in a group chat just after 2 a.m. on June 19, writing: 'Who wants to be in 3 way quick,' and '209-mikey,' referring to his room number at the Delta hotel.
Hart replied within minutes: 'I'm in.'
The Crown alleges up to 10 men filed into the standard-sized hotel room that night.
McLeod also texted team member Taylor Raddysh directly at 2:15 a.m., writing: 'Come to my room if u want a gummer.' Raddysh testified that the word means oral sex, but said he doesn't recall when he first saw that text and that he was only in McLeod's room briefly.
The complainant said on video that 'it was all consensual'
Smiling and wrapping herself in a towel, the woman was recorded in the hotel room on McLeod's phone around 4:26 a.m. on June 19
saying 'it was all consensual,'
about 20 minutes before she's seen on camera leaving the hotel.
'Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,' says the woman on the video, which was shown to the jury on Wednesday. '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.'
In a shorter video recorded at 3:25 a.m., a voice off-camera asks the woman if she's 'OK with this' and she replies: 'I'm OK with this.'
Both recordings were turned over to London police by McLeod in July 2018.
The complainant is expected to say she felt she had to comply with what the players wanted
Once the complainant takes the stand, she's not expected to testify that she said no to any of the specific sexual acts, nor that she was physically resisting, Donkers said in her opening address.
'We anticipate that you will hear (the complainant) testify that when she was in this hotel room, age 20, intoxicated, and a group of large men that she did not know were speaking to each other as if she was not there and then they started telling her to do certain things, she did not feel that she had a choice in the matter,' said Donkers.
'On occasion, she tried to leave the room but the men coaxed her into staying. And so, she found herself going through the motions, just trying to get through the night by doing and saying what she believed that they wanted.'
The Crown alleges the men took no steps to get the complainant's 'affirmative consent' to the sexual acts.
'Instead, they just did what they wanted,' Donkers said.
Taylor Raddysh remembers almost nothing about that night
Washington Capitals player Raddysh
was beamed into the courtroom Wednesday
via Zoom from Arlington, Va., where he testified he remembers almost nothing about the events of June 18-19, 2018. He said he briefly entered McLeod's room where he saw McLeod, team member Boris Katchouk, and a woman, possibly on the bed.
But in what position, whether she was wearing any clothes, and whether she said anything to him, Raddysh couldn't say.
'I don't really have any recollection of what I saw in that room,' Raddysh testified under questioning by Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham.