Former teammate of accused Canadian junior players breaks down crying at trial
Crown witness Brett Howden – who was in the London, Ont. hotel room where five of his former world junior teammates allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in June, 2018 – broke down crying under questioning by a defence lawyer Thursday.
Mr. Howden, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, became emotional during a series of questions from defence lawyer Lisa Carnelos about his state of mind in the days after the alleged assault, when he was thinking about having to explain the situation to his family and then-girlfriend.
'I was very nervous when all this was – when all this was going on,' he said. 'That was one of the hardest things to go through was explaining this to my family.'
Mr. Howden, who now plays in the NHL for the Vegas Golden Knights, told Ms. Carnelos he was particularly scared to tell his dad. He said he knew he hadn't been involved in the alleged assault – court has heard he was in the room during some sexual acts – but it was still stressful.
Ms. Carnelos was questioning Mr. Howden about his mindset at this time because court has heard that on June 26, 2018 – a week after the alleged assault at the Delta Armouries hotel – Mr. Howden and his former teammate Taylor Raddysh had a lengthy text exchange about what transpired in the hotel room and the fallout.
The Crown has made an application to have part of the conversation entered into evidence, including a message in which Mr. Howden wrote: 'Dude I'm so happy I left … Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl's ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.'
Court has heard that 'Duber' refers to Dillon Dubé, one of the five hockey players on trial. He, along with Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote, has been charged with sexual assault in connection with an alleged attack on a complainant known publicly as E.M. in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. Mr. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault. All have pleaded not guilty.
On Thursday, Mr. Howden appeared in court remotely and was questioned as part of what's called a voir dire. This is a trial within a trial, in which Justice Carroccia has been asked to decide on the admissibility of certain evidence, such as the text exchanges.
Under questioning from Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham, Mr. Howden told the court he remembered texting Mr. Raddysh but not specifically what was said. Asked about the veracity of those texts, he told the court: 'I had no reason to lie.'
'Do you believe that you were being truthful in what you said in those messages to Mr. Raddysh,' Ms. Cunningham asked.
'Yeah, I believe I was being truthful,' he said.
Ms. Carnelos asserted that Mr. Howden was in 'self-preservation mode' when he sent Mr. Raddysh those texts and questioned whether he was checking the messages for accuracy before sending.
To this, Mr. Howden repeated that he didn't believe he had any reason to lie, but added that it was a difficult and stressful time and it's possible some things are inaccurate in the text exchange, which is 10 pages long.
Ms. Carnelos asked Mr. Howden whether he was worried about consequences for his professional hockey career in the days after the alleged assault.
He said that hadn't crossed his mind yet – that he was more worried about Hockey Canada's investigation of the incident. 'I never thought it would – would come to what it has now.'
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