NHL star testifies in 2018 sexual assault case involving his former Canada world junior teammates

Economic Times

01-05-2025

AP A composite image of five photographs show former members of Canada's 2018 World Juniors hockey team, left to right; Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart. (Nicole Osborne/The Canadian Press via AP) A former member of Canada's 2018 world junior team was summoned to testify on Wednesday (April 30) as a Crown witness in a sexual assault case in which five of his then teammates are on trial as accused. Taylor Raddysh, currently a forward for the National Hockey League team Washington Capitals and the first player to testify in the case, appeared through video conferencing before the Ontario Superior Court in Canada's London from Virginia where he was in a practice session.The five former team members of the 2018 world junior squad facing charges of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman in London's Delta Armouries hotel room are Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart. All of them were physically present in the court when Raddysh, who is not accused in the case, was stating what he saw in the hotel on the day the alleged crime took place.
According to Raddysh, he was called by Michael McLeod, who is also facing a secondary charge of being party to sexual assault, to the latter's room where he saw the woman who later alleged the sexual assault lying on the bed. He revealed that the team was celebrating its win on June 18, 2018, at a local bar (Jack's) with players drinking and dancing.He later received a few messages from McLeod on his mobile phone and he took their screenshots on the morning of June 19, 2018. He testified that he got the first message on June 19 after 2 am local time from McLeod. The two messages from McLeod, with the first one sent to the team's group with 19 member, had sexual connotations.
One of the messages, which Mr. McLeod allegedly sent to the hockey team's 19-member group chat, read: "Who wants to be in a 3-way quick?": was the first message which was sent to the team's group while the other sent directly to McLeod read: "'come to my room' if he wanted oral sex, according to Canadian news portal TheAlbertan.com.The two players were staying in adjacent rooms at the hotel. Raddysh went to see McLeod in the latter's room and added that he was there from a brief period but saw a woman in the hotel bed. When asked to reveal details if the woman was wearing clothes, Raddysh said, "Sitting here today, I don't remember."While he did not recollect the amount of time he spent in the room, he added that it was 'a very short time."After a week had passed following their hotel room interaction, Raddysh sent a message to McLeod informing him that he called by a Hockey Canada official who said "there's an investigation". All the messages that Raddysh spoke abbout were also shown to the court during the testimony, which is expected to continue on Thursday (May 1).All the five accused players have pleaded not guilty.The woman, who cannot be identified, and is known as EM was seen arriving at Jack's bar with a female friend at around 11 pm as per the video footage presented in the court.Several Canadian junior team members were seen entering the bar after midnight. All the accused were part of the group.The players were seen drinking and dancing in the footage. McLeod was also seen speaking to EM and the two were also recorded kissing each other inside the bar, Justice Maria Carroccia told the jury.The judge also pointed that the assault allegedly took place later when the woman went to the hotel with McLeod where the other accused joined them in the room.Prosecutor Heather Donkers told the jury that EM and McLeod indulged in consensual sex in the latter's hotel room. But after that more men came into the room and the woman did not consent.According to Donkers, EM will testify before the jury that 'she was in this hotel room, at age 20, intoxicated.' According to her allegations the accused did not seek her consent "when they touched her"., and "they just did what they wanted".One of the videos played in the court was taken from McLeod's phone in which the woman is seen asking the hockey player if he was recording her. 'Are you recording me? Ok, good. It was all consensual. You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it, it was fine. It was all consensual,' TheAlbertan.com quoted.