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Toronto Star
20 hours ago
- Sport
- Toronto Star
Hockey Canada sexual assault trial: A timeline of legal proceedings unfolding in a London, Ont. courthouse
A 'treasure trove' of evidence thrown out and two juries dismissed. The trial of five professional hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a woman in London, Ont., has been filled with difficult testimony and unexpected drama. The players, all of whom were part of Canada's team at the 2018 world junior championships, have been standing trial since April. The Star's courts and justice reporter Jacques Gallant is reporting on the legal saga that has captured public attention and sparked a reckoning over the handling of sexual misconduct allegations in professional sports. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW From left to right: Ottawa Senators' Alex Formenton, New Jersey Devils defenceman Cal Foote, New Jersey Devils' Michael McLeod, Calgary Flames centre Dillon Dube and Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Carter Hart. Canadian Press/AP compilation The five players, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote, are charged with sexually assaulting a then-20-year-old woman in the early morning of June 19, 2018, in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel following the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event in London. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to a sexual assault for allegedly encouraging his teammates to engage in sexual activity with the complainant when he knew she wasn't consenting. The men — who now range in age from 25 to 27 — were all members of the team that won gold for Canada at the 2018 world junior championships. All but Formenton were playing in the NHL when they were arrested last year: McLeod and Foote were with the New Jersey Devils, Hart with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Dubé with the Calgary Flames. Formenton, who previously played with the Ottawa Senators, was with Swiss team HC Ambri-Piotta. The trial has unfolded in court with each player seated at a separate table, alongside their lawyers. Here's a timeline of all the key moments of the trial so far: April 22: The first trial begins and all players plead not guilty Justice Maria Carroccia, left to right, Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote are seen in a courtroom sketch. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould At the beginning of the trial, presided over by Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia, all five players stood before a packed courtroom and pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. The pleas came as no surprise. The accused players are being represented by some of the most prominent criminal lawyers in the province; their lawyers had said since their January 2024 arrests that their clients maintain their innocence. News organizations are barred from writing about the identity of the complainant under a publication ban that is typical in cases involving allegations of sexual assault. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW April 25: The judge declares a mistrial Crown Heather Donkers, centre, and Justice Maria Carroccia, back, are shown in court. Alexandra Newbould/ The Canadian Press The first trial's jury had only been selected three days earlier had barely heard any evidence when Justice Carroccia declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury, for reasons that were covered by a publication ban intended to protect the players' right to a fair trial by the next jury. (That ban became redundant when the second jury was subsequently dismissed; the Star has since reported that the mistrial was declared over an interaction between a juror and a defence lawyer.) The court immediately proceeded to select another jury of 14 for a second trial, beginning immediately. All five men once again formally entered their pleas of not guilty. May 5: Week one; the Crown begins its case The following week's court proceedings saw Crown attorneys Meaghan Cunningham and Heather Donkers spell out the specific details of the allegations against each of the accused. Crown Meaghan Cunningham, right, and Taylor Raddysh, depicted in video conference, are seen in a courtroom sketch in London, Ont., Wednesday, April 30, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould They explained that after the complainant had consensual sex with McLeod in a hotel room, a series of subsequent sexual interactions occurred — all without the woman's consent. Specifically, Formenton engaged in intercourse with the complainant in the hotel room bathroom; McLeod, Hart and Dubé obtained oral sex; Dubé slapped the complainant's naked buttocks; Foote did the 'splits' over the woman while she lay on the ground, 'grazing his genitals over her face'; and McLeod had vaginal intercourse with her a second time In the first week, the jury saw evidence including screengrabs of 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,' one message read. Jurors also saw the complainant in two short videos taken inside the courtroom. In one, taken about 20 minutes before she's seen on camera leaving the hotel, she says 'it was all consensual.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,' she continues. '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.' May 14: The complainant testifies for a total of nine days Crown Meaghan Cunningham, and the complainant, depicted in video conference, are seen in a courtroom sketch in London, Ont., Friday, May 2, 2025. Alexandra Newbould The Canadian Press In the nine days of her testimony, including seven days of cross-questioning by defence lawyers, the complainant went into graphic detail to describe her allegations about what took place inside the hotel room on June 19, 2018. She said she met player Michael McLeod at Jack's Bar when she was 20 years old and returned to his room at the Delta Armouries hotel where they had consensual sex, only for multiple men to come in afterward. She has alleged they 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. During her cross-examination, the complainant testified that she took on a 'porn star persona' as a coping mechanism in a hotel room full of men she didn't know. She explained that her mind had separated from her body while she engaged in sexual activity with the men. She did not claim the men physically forced her to do anything that night, nor that she said no to the alleged assaults, but said she nonetheless did not consent to what happened. She testified she was drunk and in an autonomous state, acting in 'autopilot' while surrounded by large men she didn't know and who should have known she wasn't consenting. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW May 16: Second jury dismissed, trial goes judge-alone In a shocking turn of events, Justice Carroccia dismissed the second jury suddenly after a complaint that multiple jurors felt that two defence lawyers appeared to be making fun of them in court — something the lawyers vehemently denied. Following agreement by the Crown and defence, the judge decided to continue to hear the trial without a jury, meaning witnesses who have already testified would not have to come back. 'My concern is that there is a possibility that several members of the jury harbour negative feelings about certain counsel that could potentially impact upon their ability to fairly decide this case,' Carroccia said in her ruling explaining her decision to dismiss the jury. Before being dismissed, the jury had started hearing testimony from player Tyler Steenbergen, who said he heard the woman demanding to have sex with players in the room, and witnessed Dube slap her naked buttocks and 'partially' saw Foote do the splits over her while she was on the ground. The judge's decision to dismiss the jury also had the effect of removing any publication bans on evidence heard in pretrial hearings. Such bans are intended to maintain a jury's impartiality by shielding them from information deemed inadmissible at trial. Without a jury, however, the Star could report what it saw and learned at these hearings. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Why a Hockey Canada investigator's 'unfair' probe led to the exclusion of a 'virtual treasure trove' of evidence Hockey Canada initially investigated the alleged incident in 2018, with no conclusion. However, the woman later filed a lawsuit against the organization and, by 2022, her story had become the focus of nationwide outrage. Facing intense public pressure, Hockey Canada presented the players — some now playing in the NHL — with a stark choice: give an interview to a re-opened internal investigation, or be identified publicly and banned from Hockey Canada activities and programs for life. Lawyer Danielle Robitaille appears as a witness at the standing committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press What the organization's independent investigator and prominent Toronto lawyer Danielle Robitaille didn't tell the players is that by August 2022, she was aware that London police planned to get a warrant to seize her investigative file as part of its own reopened investigation. Robitaille's decision to press ahead became the focus of intense argument in the pretrial hearings. Were you 'oblivious' to how potentially valuable these statements could be in the hands of the police and the Crown, as they made their case for criminal charges, McLeod's lawyer David Humphrey asked Robitaille at the hearings last year? 'I just didn't care,' Robitaille testified. 'It was collateral to me.' Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas found that how the statements were obtained was 'so unfair and prejudicial' that they could not be used by the Crown at trial, ruled that the statements had to be excluded, and so they were never heard in court. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case The entrance to room 209 is seen at the Delta Armouries hotel in London, Ont. on April 25. DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS With the second jury dismissed, Star reporter Jacques Gallant was also able to report details of both London police investigations. The first, launched in 2018, ended without charges being laid. The case was re-opened in 2022 amid intense public pressure after it was revealed Hockey Canada had settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit filed by the complainant. The renewed police investigation would ultimately lead to the sexual assault charges against the five players. Documents from the first police investigation revealed that London police Det. Steve Newton came to doubt that a crime had been committed. Among the pieces of evidence that led him to that conclusion were the videos of the complainant inside the hotel room saying it was 'consensual' and surveillance footage showing the complainant walking steadily and unaided in heels in the hotel lobby — appearing to contradict that she was too intoxicated that night to consent. Newton wondered whether the complainant had been an 'active participant' in the events of June 18-19, 2018; he closed the case in February 2019. The re-opened investigation eventually led to charges under a different theory of the case: that although the complainant did not say no and was not too drunk to consent, she subjectively believed she had no alternative but to engage in sexual acts with a group of men who ought to have known she was not consenting. Behind the scenes, Crown attorney Cunningham met with the complainant and warned her that while the Crown felt it had met the test to prosecute, it was 'not a really, really strong case.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Read more about the two police investigations from the Star's Jacques Gallant: Canada Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case Jacques Gallant May 29: Crown prosecutors rest their case Five weeks, seven witnesses and two dismissed juries later, the Crown closed its case, hoping to have persuaded judge Carroccia that the five hockey players were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of sexually assaulting the 20-year-old complainant the night of a charity fundraiser. 'I am formally closing the Crown's case at this time,' Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham said in court. Read Jacques Gallant's report summarizing the Crown's evidence: Canada The defence has closed and the Hockey Canada sex assault trial is ending. Here's what matters from six weeks of evidence Jacques Gallant June 2: Defence closes their case in the trial Of the five former members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team on trial, only Carter Hart ended up testifying in his own defence, telling the court that his sexual contact with the complainant was consensual. The trial's final witness was London police Det. Lyndsey Ryan, who was tasked in the summer of 2022 with leading the reopened probe. The complainant in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case 'was actually quite upset' when Ryan the news to her in 2022 that the force was taking a second look at its initial investigation that had led to no criminal charges, the detective testified. 'I felt pretty bad because it felt like … I got the sense that I was opening up some wounds that she was trying to close,' Ryan said. Ultimately, the other four players declined to testify; the trial was put on hold until June 9, after which both sides will present their closing arguments to Carroccia. Canada Complainant 'actually quite upset' police reopened Hockey Canada sex assault case, London detective testifies Jacques Gallant
Toronto Star
29-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
The prosecution has closed. Here's how to understand the Crown's case in the Hockey Canada sex assault trial
Five weeks, seven witnesses and two dismissed juries later, the Crown has closed its case at the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, hoping to have persuaded a judge that five former Canadian world junior hockey players are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman the night of a charity fundraiser. 'I am formally closing the Crown's case at this time,' Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham said in court Thursday morning. The focus now turns to the five defence teams to see if they will call any evidence, including testimony from the accused players. Lawyers for Michael McLeod indicated Thursday they will not call any evidence. Accused player Carter Hart will, however, take the stand, and began testifying Thursday morning. It remains to be seen whether the other three defence teams will present a case. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW At this point in the ongoing trial, the Star can take a step back to summarize the totality of the prosecution's case, put forward by Crown attorneys Cunningham and Heather Donkers. Here's what you need to know, starting with the basics of the evidence and the prosecution's theory of the case. The essence of the Crown case The entrance to room 209, that was registered to former Canadian world junior hockey players Michael McLeod and Alex Formenton in 2018. DARRYL DYCK THE CANADIAN PRESS The prosecution case focuses primarily on the evidence of the complainant — the alleged victim — who testified in graphic detail over a gruelling nine days that she was sexually assaulted by several members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018. The team was in town for the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event and to receive their rings for winning the world championship earlier that year. Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, while McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to being a party to a sexual assault for allegedly encouraging his teammates to engage in sexual activity with the complainant when he knew she wasn't consenting. The woman, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, had met McLeod at Jack's Bar and returned to his room at the Delta Armouries hotel where they had consensual sex, only for multiple men to come in afterward. The Crown has alleged that McLeod 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 — all without her consent. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The issue of consent has been at the heart of the case since well before charges were laid. As the Star has previously reported, London police initially declined to lay charges in 2019 because lead investigator Steve Newton had doubts after viewing video evidence that the complainant was too intoxicated to consent, as she had told police. He wondered in his report whether the complainant was an 'active participant' in the events of June 18-19, 2018, and also whether she was being 'coerced' by family to report to police. Canada Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with Canada Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with The force reopened their probe in 2022 amid intense public pressure after Hockey Canada settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit filed by the complainant against the organization and eight unnamed John Doe players. Unlike in 2018, London police approached the case from a different angle in 2022 that didn't focus on the complainant's state of intoxication. Instead, they laid charges on the theory that she went along with the sexual activity in the room because she felt intimidated and the men should have known she wasn't consenting — the same argument the Crown has made at trial. The complainant's testimony: 'My mind just kind of shut down' Now 27 years old, the woman testified via CCTV from a different room in the London courthouse that as more men came into the room after she had sex with McLeod, they 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. A pair of video stills from inside Jack's Bar show the complainant with world junior team members Dillon Dubé, circled left, and Michael McLeod, right. Ontario Superior Court Exhibit She didn't claim the men physically forced her to do anything that night, nor that she said no to the alleged assaults, but says she nonetheless did not consent to what happened. She testified she was drunk and in an autonomous state, acting in 'autopilot' while surrounded by large men she didn't know and who should have known she wasn't consenting. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW She also acknowledged that she told the Crown and police during a witness preparation meeting earlier this year that she adopted the 'persona' of a 'porn star' as a coping mechanism while in the room. 'I didn't know these men at all, I didn't know how they would react if I did try to say no or try to leave,' she testified. 'My mind just kind of shut down and let my body do what it thought it needed to do to keep me safe.' Crown Meaghan Cunningham, and the complainant, depicted in video conference, are seen in a courtroom sketch in London, Ont., Friday, May 2, 2025. Alexandra Newbould The Canadian Press She said that she was crying, and that when she would try to leave, the men would coax her back into the room, putting their arm around her and guiding her back to the bedsheet. At one point, she said she became worried when someone made comments about 'putting golf balls in me, in my vagina, and asking if I could take the whole club.' The woman was also asked about two videos taken by McLeod on his phone in the hotel room that night. In the first, McLeod asks her off-camera if she's 'OK with this,' and she replies, smiling: 'I'm OK with this.' The complainant testified she wasn't aware she was being recorded in that first video. She speaks for longer in the second video, taken about an hour after the first: 'Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,' she says, wrapping herself in a towel. '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 complainant testified she was just saying what she thought the men wanted to hear. 'I think this is still a point where my mind is disconnected from my body,' she said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Her mother found her distraught in their home's bathroom later on June 19; she was unable at the time to clearly tell her mother what had happened. Her mother called the police, while her mother's partner called Hockey Canada. Under cross-examination, she acknowledged that it was 'possible' she pulled Formenton into the bathroom, where they had intercourse, and that she may have been offering sexual services or performances to the players. 'I don't have a memory of offering that up,' the woman testified, 'but based on this persona I was trying to use to cope, it could be possible.' Texts entered as evidence show McLeod urging the woman to drop the matter after finding out police had been called: 'You said you were having fun??' A series of text messages between Michael McLeod and the complainant. Ontario Superior Court Exhibit The woman said she was really drunk and 'didn't feel good about it at all after,' but that it was her mother who called the police and she would tell them she didn't want to pursue charges. 'I'm sorry, didn't mean for that to happen,' she wrote. 'I was OK with going home with you, it was everyone else afterwards that I wasn't expecting. I just felt like I was being made fun of and taken advantage of.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The complainant testified she was just telling McLeod whatever would get him to leave her alone. Meanwhile, in texts to her best friend on June 19, the complainant wrote 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.' 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 at trial. 'I didn't want to say those words, because then it would be true.' Text messages between the complaint and her best friend the day after the alleged sexual assaults. Ontario Superior Court Exhibit Read more of the Star's reporting on the complainant's testimony 'My truth': The Hockey Canada sex assault complainant, in her own words after nine days on the stand Daily coverage Friday, May 2 — Day 1 of her testimony: I was drunk and 'uncomfortable' at bar with Canada world juniors, woman testifies Monday, May 5: 'Numb and on autopilot': Woman details alleged Hockey Canada sex assaults Monday, May 5 — Cross-examination begins: Woman details alleged Hockey Canada sex assaults Tuesday, May 6: Defence suggests woman demanded sex Wednesday, May 7: Hockey Canada complainant says she took on 'porn star persona' Thursday, May 8: 'I knew he didn't do anything': Complainant blames lawyers for false accusation in lawsuit Friday, May 9: 'I am giving my truth': Defence presses Hockey Canada complainant on inconsistencies Monday, May 12: 'It could be possible' woman pulled player into bathroom Tuesday, May 13: They were men, not boys, complainant says What other players in the room said: The complainant was 'taunting everyone' It's believed that up to 10 players were in the room throughout the night while the complainant was there; most of those called as witnesses for the prosecutiontestified they saw the woman demanding to have sex with players, and was calling them 'pussies' when most refused. Although these witnesses at times seemed to offer stronger evidence in favour of the idea the complainant was an 'active participant,' the teammates wereparticularly important to the Crown's case because they could put names to alleged actions. The complainant herself was only able to identify McLeod and Formenton as men with whom she'd had sex; the teammates' evidence was crucial to placing Hart, Dubé and Foote inside the room that night. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Player Tyler Steenbergen testified he went into room 209 with the understanding that there was food inside, and so he said he was shocked when he saw a naked woman come out of the bathroom and proceed to a bedsheet on the floor and begin masturbating. 'She said, 'Can one of you guys come over and f--- me?'' Steenbergen testified. Det. Steve Newton's handwritten notes on the complainant's comments during a June 26, 2018, photo-identification interview. (The officer's notes have been excerpted to fit in a single image.) Ontario Superior Court Exhibit He said he saw Hart receive oral sex from the woman for about 30 seconds to a minute, followed by McLeod, and witnessed Dubé slap her naked buttocks — 'It wasn't hard, but it didn't seem soft either.' He later agreed with suggestions put to him in cross-examination that it appeared playful and part of foreplay. Steenbergen also testified he partially witnessed Foote do the splits over the woman's body while she was lying on the ground between two beds. He couldn't see fully because there were people in his line of sight. 'Just like legs apart, I think, I don't know how else to describe the splits,' Steenbergen testified. Screenshot of a text message exchange between 2018 world junior championship team members Michael McLeod and Taylor Raddysh. McLeod's text to Raddysh on June 19, 2018, about a 'gummer' referred to oral sex, Raddysh testified. Ontario Superior Court Player Brett Howden's testimony, which followed Steenbergen's, posed problems for the Crown, with Cunningham acknowledging that it had not proceeded 'as anticipated.' He had a lot of memory gaps, due to the passage of time and being intoxicated that night in 2018. He also agreed with a question in cross-examination that a serious head injury from 2022 could have impacted his memory. He couldn't even remember whether the woman was clothed or naked when he saw her come out of the hotel room bathroom. He recalled the woman was 'chirping guys, kind of taunting everyone and kind of egging everybody on' because no one would take her up on her offer to have sex. He testified he saw Hart and McLeod receive oral sex from the woman. 'I just remember her kind of initiating, trying to get someone to do something with her, a sexual act with her,' he said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW He also said he saw the woman 'taking' Formenton to the bathroom, where they had sex. Asked under cross-examination if he believes what he saw in the room was '100 per cent consensual,' he replied: 'Yeah.' And while he said in previous statements that he believes he heard the woman crying, he confirmed in his testimony that he believed it was because she was embarrassed that no one would have sex with her. Two other players testified at the start of the trial, but were only in the room briefly before more players showed up, and recalled very little; player Taylor Raddysh could only remember seeing a woman there. He had received a text from McLeod about coming to his room for a 'gummer,' meaning oral sex, but didn't recall seeing the text at the time, while McLeod neglected to mention the text in his 2018 police interview. Player Boris Katchouk also said McLeod invited him to his room where he offered him a 'gummer' from the woman, but he declined. Read more of the Star's reporting on the teammates' testimony Teammate says Hockey Canada complainant was asking players to have sex with her Hockey Canada teammate says he saw players slap complainant, do splits over her NHLer doesn't remember much from night of alleged sex assaults — but says what he saw was '100 per cent consensual' Rosie DiManno: Hockey Canada trial pores over NHLer's 'lack of memory' about night of alleged sex assaults 'I had a girlfriend at the time': Teammate describes text invitation for a 'gummer' The players' words to each other — and to investigators A group chat including a text from Michael McLeod inviting his teammates to his hotel room. One piece of evidence the police didn't have when they chose not to lay charges in February 2019 was the players' group chat messages from June 2018, which included McLeod telling his teammates after 2 a.m. on June 19 to come to his room for a '3 way.' Days later, after learning that Hockey Canada was looking into reports of the alleged incident, the players expressed concern in the group chat. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'We all need to say the same thing if we get interviewed can't have different stories or make anything up,' McLeod texted the players. 'We are fine, the boys who did things got consent so just tell them that and it's fine,' Dubé wrote. He went on to say 'let's not make her sound like too crazy' because she could get angry 'and we don't need that so just be good about it, but the truth with it.' 'She was the one begging guys to bang her,' Hart chimed in at one point. For his part, Howden texted they should be making allegations about the complainant; he later testified he said this because he was upset and surprised that Hockey Canada was looking into something when he didn't believe anything wrong had happened. Group text messages between some members of the 2018 world junior hockey championship team after they learned about an internal Hockey Canada investigation. (The texts appear in a multi-page court exhibit and have been excerpted by the Star to fit in a single image.) The players' own words: 'I was just kind of worried something like this might happen' Just before closing their case this week, the Crown presented the recorded statements that McLeod, Formenton, and Dubé gave to London police in 2018, when they were told upfront that there were no grounds to lay charges. Newton, the lead detective at the time, also interviewed Foote, who was treated at the time as a witness to the sexual activity in the room, and whose statement was not entered as evidence at trial. (Hart refused to be interviewed; McLeod, Formenton, and Dubé all witnessed him receiving oral sex from the complainant.) In his interview, McLeod notably neglected to mention his texts encouraging his teammates to come to his room for a '3 way,' or that he texted Raddysh directly about coming to his room for a 'gummer.' ('I don't know how guys kept showing up,' he told Newton in November 2018.) What he did tell Newton is that after having sex with the complainant, he texted teammates about ordering food and 'and I told them I have a girl in the room.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW McLeod — who acknowledged having sex with the complainant a second time in the bathroom, as well as receiving oral sex in the room — told Newton it was a 'weird situation' to have the woman demanding to have sex with his teammates. This is why, McLeod told the detective, he recorded her twice saying she was consenting. 'Throughout the night, I was just trying to make sure she was OK with this, because it was a weird situation that I wasn't expecting was going to happen with all the guys coming in,' he said in his video-recorded statement. 'I was just kind of worried something like this might happen.' He also said he had to calm the woman down when she would become upset because no one wanted to have sex with her: 'Like I told her we're only not going to have sex with you because no wants to have sex in front of nine other guys, so she kind of felt better about that.' Formenton told Newton in November 2018, a few days after McLeod's interview, that he 'volunteered' to have sex with the woman in the bathroom as many of the men didn't want to have sex with her because they had girlfriends. 'I think she was embarrassed that nobody did anything to her, and I think she was maybe embarrassed that she thinks she wasn't hot enough and that no one gave her the attention while she was sitting there naked,' Formenton said in his video-recorded statement. 'But really, it was just because everyone had girlfriends and no one found it not awkward to do that in front of people.' Dubé told Newton in a phone interview in December 2018 that he received oral sex from the woman for about 10 seconds, but does not mention that he slapped her buttocks — something he would later tell Hockey Canada investigator, lawyer Danielle Robitaille. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'I kind of knew it was a bad idea,' he told Newton regarding the brief instance of oral sex, while emphasizing that the woman was demanding to have sex. 'I didn't want to be a part of it, so I kind of stumbled back.' Read more of the Star's reporting on the London police investigations Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case In video from 2018 police interview, Michael McLeod describes 'weird' night — but omits inviting world junior teammates for '3 way' What the Crown couldn't use Before the trial began, the Crown was prohibited from using the statements McLeod, Formenton, and Dubé had given Robitaille, Hockey Canada's independent investigator, as part of the organization's 2022 probe. Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas ruled last year the statements had to be excluded because of the 'unfair' way in which they were obtained — the players faced a lifetime ban from Hockey Canada activities if they didn't participate in the probe, but Robitaille didn't tell them the police planned to get a warrant for those interviews. While reiterating that the woman was demanding to have sex with players, the men provided details to Robitaille they did not share with Newton in 2018. McLeod acknowledged he sent the text inviting players to his room, though he said it was at the complainant's urging, while Dubé admitted to slapping her buttocks. And they also gave details about seeing what others were doing — like Dubé and Formenton both seeing Foote do the splits over the woman's body. At trial, Cunningham also fervently tried twice to get a text message from Howden admitted as evidence that she said provided 'very critical corroboration' for the complainant's testimony that she was slapped on the buttocks and that it hurt — but both times Carroccia ruled against her because Howden had no memory of sending the text nor witnessing what he describes in it. The text in question, sent to Raddysh days after the alleged incident, referred to Dubé in the hotel room and would have been the piece of evidence that most closely aligned with the complainant's testimony. It read: 'Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl's ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.' Read more of the Star's reporting on Hockey Canada's 'unfair' internal investigation 'I just didn't care': Why a Hockey Canada investigator's 'unfair' probe led to the exclusion of a 'virtual treasure trove' of evidence The Crown thought it would have a jury Cunningham and Donkers had thought they'd be presenting their case to a jury, but their world was turned upside down not once, but twice. Carroccia declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury in late April after they had barely heard any evidence, after a juror reported Formenton's lawyer, Hilary Dudding, spoke to her at lunch. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Although there were conflicting reports over what was said, Carroccia said she was concerned that some members of the jury may now harbour negative feelings toward the defence after the incident was discussed in the jury room. The second jury lasted much longer, having heard all of the complainant's testimony, until they too were sent home on May 16 after multiple jurors complained that Dudding and co-counsel Daniel Brown appeared to be making fun of them, something they both strenuously denied. It was decided the case would continue as a judge-alone trial, so that witnesses who had already testified, including the complainant, wouldn't have to come back. Cunningham, the province's lead sexual assault prosecutor as chair of the Crown office's sexual violence advisory group, fought hard to keep the status quo. She expressed concerns that she had presented most of her case to a jury while the defence, should they choose to call any evidence, would be presenting to a judge — a totally different reality. 'We fear that this would potentially cause prejudice to the Crown's case, to the Crown's ability to sort of conduct its case in a complete and fair manner,' she said, before Carroccia ruled against her and dismissed the jury. Read more of the Star's reporting on the two mistrials Jury dismissed. Hockey Canada trial to go judge-alone after jurors report being 'made fun of' by defence lawyers The inside stories from the Hockey Canada sex assault case — including what caused that mistrial Rosie DiManno: To the second failed jury of the Hockey Canada trial: goodbye, and good riddance What to expect from the defence case The defence is never required to present a case in a criminal trial, as the burden to prove the charges always remains with the Crown. McLeod's lawyer, David Humphrey, told Carroccia Thursday they will not call any evidence, especially given the fact that the Crown has already entered as evidence McLeod's 2018 video statement to police. Hart began testifying in his own defence Thursday morning under questioning by his lawyer, Megan Savard.
Hamilton Spectator
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Why didn't police lay charges in 2019? Inside the London police investigations in the Hockey Canada sex assault case
The call came in to London, Ont., police on June 19, 2018, from a woman saying she needed advice. 'So my daughter was out at a bar last night, she came home this morning ... and I can't really get a whole lot of information out of her. She's basically saying she's embarrassed, she's ashamed, she put herself in a bad situation,' the woman said. 'I have reason to believe obviously something happened that she didn't agree to. I don't really know where to go from there.' That same day, another call came to police, this time from Glen McCurdie, a vice-president at Hockey Canada. A man had called the organization reporting his partner's daughter may have been sexually assaulted in a hotel room with players, McCurdie told police, and the young woman didn't want to come forward. 'All I'm telling you is the allegations that came through the mother's boyfriend,' McCurdie said. 'That's all I've got.' Those first phone calls would soon lead to an eight-month police investigation into an alleged sexual assault committed at the Delta Armouries hotel in London by members of the 2018 Canadian world junior team, following the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event. A then-20-year-old woman, whose identity is now covered by a standard publication ban, alleged that she was sexually assaulted by multiple players after going back to the hotel room of team member Michael McLeod, with whom she'd had consensual sex after meeting him at a bar. The inside story of how London police handled the woman's allegations can now be made public after a judge on Friday dismissed the jury at the high-profile sexual assault trial of five professional hockey players , following a complaint from jurors that two defence lawyers appeared to be making fun of them. The case will move forward as a judge-alone trial. The police's probe ended in February 2019 without charges being laid, only to be re-opened in 2022 amid intense public pressure when it was revealed Hockey Canada had settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit filed that year by the complainant. As London police stated in court records in 2022: 'The media attention surrounding this event is significant.' That renewed investigation would ultimately lead to sexual assault charges in 2024 against five players who are now on trial: McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, and Carter Hart. The Crown has alleged that McLeod 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; and that Foote did the splits over her head and his genitals 'grazed' her face. Hundreds of pages of documents filed in the court proceedings shed new light on London police's original investigation, and finally help provide answers to burning questions: Why were no charges laid back in 2019? And what changed in 2022 that led the police and Crown to believe they now had a case? The timeline of the two investigations The documents reveal that a veteran detective with London police's sexual assault and child abuse section spoke to the complainant multiple times in 2018, including several formal interviews, as she went back and forth on whether she wanted to pursue charges. At one point, Det. Steve Newton wondered whether she was being 'coerced' to report as a result of pressure from family and friends. He also interviewed four of the five players now on trial (all except Hart), telling them upfront he didn't have grounds to lay criminal charges. Those who admitted to engaging in sexual activity with the complainant maintained it was consensual. What appears to have caused Newton the most doubt that a crime had been committed was the video evidence: surveillance footage showing the complainant walking steadily and unaided in heels in the hotel lobby led Newton to question her account that she was too intoxicated that night to consent . And, perhaps most importantly, two video clips recorded by McLeod of the complainant smiling in the hotel room following the alleged sexual assaults; in one of them, she says: 'It was all consensual.' Newton ultimately wondered in a report whether the complainant had been an 'active participant' in the events of June 18-19, 2018; he closed the case in February 2019. Fast forward to three years later, and London police's Det. Lyndsey Ryan and a team of officers were tasked with taking a second look. While Newton had his doubts that the complainant was too drunk to consent, records suggest that the 2022 investigation approached the case from a different angle: that the complainant only went along with everything because of the intimidating nature of a hotel room full of men she didn't know, and the players should have known she wasn't actually consenting . Bolstering the police's case was a new written statement sent by the complainant's lawyer in the summer of 2022, although police describe it in filings as 'substantially the same' as her interviews with Newton in 2018. (At trial, the complainant admitted that the statement contains multiple errors and was actually written by her civil lawyers.) Police also had text messages between the players from 2018 that had been sent to investigators by their lawyers. And, unlike in 2018, London police decided to get a court order for records from Hockey Canada's independent investigation into the matter, which included interviews with some of the players now on trial. They had refused to speak to police in 2022 to exercise their right to remain silent, but faced the choice of either participating in the Hockey Canada probe or being banned for life from the organization's programs — including Canada's world championship and Olympic teams. A judge would later toss the players' statements from the criminal case because the way in which they were obtained was so 'unfair and prejudicial' that it harmed the accused men's right to a fair trial . 'I just didn't care': Why a Hockey Canada investigator's 'unfair' probe led to the exclusion of a 'virtual treasure trove' of evidence Finally, in February 2024, London police announced at a packed news conference that sexual assault charges had been laid against the players, most of whom were now playing in the NHL. Chief Thai Truong offered his 'sincerest apology' to the complainant for the length of time it had taken to get to that point, while Det.-Sgt. Katherine Dann said that investigators had followed additional leads, spoken to more witnesses and collected more evidence. Crown attorneys are required by policy to only prosecute charges laid by police if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and it's in the public interest. Behind the scenes, records show that Meaghan Cunningham, the province's lead sexual assault prosecutor as chair of the sexual violence advisory group, was warning the complainant that while the Crown felt it had met the test to prosecute, it was 'not a really, really strong case.' In a meeting with the woman, her mother, lawyer, and police about three weeks before the players were charged, Cunningham also told the complainant that they didn't have a 'strong argument' that she was incapable of consenting, despite the complainant alleging that in her lawsuit. 'It is an argument we can make, we will make , but a judge looking at the totality of the evidence may not accept that argument,' she said. The courtroom heard graphic details as the Crown laid out its opening statement in the high-profile case against five former NHL players. The courtroom heard graphic details as the Crown laid out its opening statement in the high-profile case against five former NHL players. But Cunningham assured her they had stronger arguments to make on other issues, according to notes from the meeting. She also told the complainant that if she was pursuing this hoping for a conviction, she might want to reconsider. 'If that is why you're doing this, (it) may not be worth the personal cost to you,' Cunningham said, according to the notes. 'If you're doing this to get a conviction, (I) don't know that will happen. But if it will give you a sense of accomplishment, then we will do everything in our power to get the right outcome. A conviction is absolutely possible.' The complainant said she wanted to see the case through. Within a day of the initial calls to police in 2018, Newton tried to get in touch with the complainant, who agreed to speak with him but didn't want to go ahead with charges. The woman said she didn't want 'him' — McLeod — to get in any trouble, but she also 'didn't want this happening to another girl either,' Newton wrote in his report. Meanwhile, McLeod was texting the complainant , asking if she had gone to the police; the complainant said she believed her mother had called them. 'But I told her not to. I don't want anything bad to come of it, so I told her to stop,' she says in a June 20, 2018, message to McLeod. 'I'm sorry, didn't mean for that to happen.' She was 'really drunk' at the time, she said, and 'didn't feel good about it at all after. But I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble, I know I was in the wrong too.' She said she was fine going back to the hotel with McLeod, but it was 'everyone else afterwards that I wasn't expecting.' She felt like she had been made fun of or taken advantage of, she said. In the messages, McLeod presses her to tell the police to drop the matter. She finally says: 'Told them I'm not going to pursue it any further and that it was a mistake. You should be good now, so hopefully nothing more comes of it. Sorry again for the misunderstanding.' (McLeod would tell Hockey Canada's third-party probe in 2022 that he texted her because 'we did nothing wrong' and he wanted her to 'straighten this out.) The complainant did end up speaking to Newton and outlined her allegations. She also said that the only reason she told McLeod she wasn't going to pursue the matter further was so that he would leave her alone. She told Newton that after meeting McLeod at Jack's Bar, she returned with him to his hotel room, room 209, where they had consensual sex. She said she had become separated from her friends at the bar, and was feeling the effects of alcohol. Afterward, the complainant reported several of McLeod's male friends coming into the room while she lay naked on the bed. She said a sheet was placed on the floor, and she fondled herself on it at the men's request. She also performed oral sex on approximately four men, and had intercourse with McLeod's roommate ( later identified as Formenton ) in the bathroom. Michael McLeod films a selfie video with the complainant on the dance floor inside Jack's Bar. 'She said that a couple times during this event she got dressed and was going to leave, however, the males coaxed her to undress again, and she complied,' Newton wrote. She left after having sex once more with McLeod. She soon returned to retrieve a ring in his room, but said that 'Mikey' became 'mean and derogatory' when she showed up, Newton wrote. From the complainant's description of the event, Newton wrote, 'it did not sound like at any point she had lost consciousness during this event.' After McLeod's teammates entered the room, the officer continued, the complainant 'appeared by her account of the event to be an active participant.' He went on to write that the complainant never reported telling the men she didn't want to perform those sex acts or asking them to stop; the only instance where this happened is when a man 'suggested they insert a golf club and golf balls into (her) vagina.' She told them no, and they didn't pursue it further. While it's difficult to be certain in the early stages of the investigation, Newton wrote that he left the interview with the belief that the complainant wasn't too intoxicated to make decisions for herself. 'And further that there may have been a certain level of consent given her active involvement,' he wrote, adding: 'I informed (her) of this concern.' As the complainant debated in 2018 whether she wanted to see charges laid, Newton continued his investigation, reviewing surveillance footage from the hotel lobby on the night of the alleged incident. 'I cannot conclude from viewing the video that either when arriving or leaving the hotel (the complainant) is overly intoxicated,' Newton wrote in his report. 'She is walking in stiletto heels, is not wavering as she walks unassisted. She appears steady on her feet, is not leaning on anything or holding anything/anyone to assist her as she walks.' Credit: Ontario Superior Court exhibit He told her the issues in the case 'were her level of sobriety as well as the issue of consent.' He said he'd have to review the case with a Crown attorney before deciding whether to lay charges. He also noted in his report that he provided her advice on a lawsuit. The complainant 'acknowledged that she has been getting pressure from family and friends to pursue charges and that this is not necessarily what she wants right now,' Newton wrote. She told him she'd like for him to 'suspend this investigation for the time being,' and that she may contact him again later to have it re-opened. By mid-July 2018, the complainant was again wanting to pursue criminal charges. 'She informed me that she has given the matter more thought and that she does not want to look back on what happened to her in the future and regret not pursuing it further and doing everything she could to ensure this does not happen to someone else,' Newton wrote. He had been continuing his investigation, as he worked to identify who may have been in the room that night. He spoke to Danielle Robitaille, the Toronto lawyer leading an independent probe into the matter for Hockey Canada, asking that she pass along his message that he wanted to speak to members of the 2018 team who were now spread out across North America. He soon began hearing from some of the players' lawyers. The complainant asked Newton if he could access Robitaille's file, including her interviews with the players. The complainant herself had declined to participate in that probe until the end of the police investigation. Newton said Hockey Canada's lawyers made clear they wouldn't turn the file over. He also told one of the players' lawyers, according to his report, that because he didn't believe a crime had been committed, he didn't have grounds to get a warrant for the Hockey Canada file. What seems to have further cemented Newton's belief that no charges should be laid were two short video clips sent by McLeod's lawyer, David Humphrey, in the summer of 2018. They both depict the complainant in the hotel room, as McLeod can be heard asking if she's consenting. In the first clip, Newton noted she appears to be wiping something from her eye and is smiling. McLeod asks her off-camera: 'You're OK with this, right?' and she responds, smiling: 'I'm OK with this.' Prosecutors intend to show that the woman was complying because she was surrounded by large men she didn't know while separated from her friends. Prosecutors intend to show that the woman was complying because she was surrounded by large men she didn't know while separated from her friends. In the second clip, she's covered with a towel, and still smiling. 'Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,' she says. '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.' Newton concluded that the complainant didn't seem intoxicated in either video. 'She does not appear to be in distress or non-consenting,' he wrote. (McLeod told Hockey Canada's probe in 2022 that he took the videos 'for cover, in case she regretted it at some point in her life.') The woman didn't have a clear recollection of the videos when asked about them, Newton wrote, other than to say the first video would have been taken after the sexual contact with multiple men, and the second video just before she left the hotel room. Although she says in the second video that she's sober, the woman maintained to Newton that she was actually very intoxicated and 'trying to act more sober in their midst as part of putting on a brave face.' She explained 'feelings of being overwhelmed by these males and feeling that she had to follow through with their requests,' Newton wrote. (Later, in her written statement in 2022, the complainant said she was just saying whatever she thought the men wanted to hear. 'It seemed to me that they made these videos because they knew they had just spent hours degrading a really drunk girl,' says the statement.) By February of 2019, Newton had interviewed or received statements from about half of the approximate dozen players who were believed to be in the room that night and either engaged in sexual activity or watched, and still Newton did not have reasonable grounds to believe a sexual assault had occurred. He interviewed McLeod, Formenton, Dubé, and Foote — at the time Foote was believed to have only been a witness — telling them upfront he did not have grounds to lay a sexual assault charge. The men all maintained the sexual acts they engaged in or witnessed were consensual. Hart refused to speak to police, Newton noted. After reviewing all of the evidence with his superior, the detective closed the case without laying charges. In breaking the news to the complainant, he told her that the hotel lobby surveillance footage and the clips from the room were a 'big part' of the evidence pointing away from her being too drunk to consent. The complainant 'said she was satisfied with the investigation and understands this result,' Newton wrote. 'She was happy that she stood up for herself and made this report to police causing the subjects of this investigation to need to speak to what they did.' ('I was glad that the police tried to investigate, but I was very disappointed that they thought there was not enough to go further,' says the complainant's 2022 statement. 'I was too drunk to consent, and Mikey and the other guys should have known that. Any decent guy would have seen how drunk I was and not done what they did.') While Truong wouldn't comment last year on what led to the investigation being re-opened in 2022, his officers make clear in court records that it was due to public pressure. A group chat including a text from Michael McLeod inviting his teammates to his hotel room. 'Given a resurgence in media attention, the London Police Service has reviewed this investigation with the aim of determining what other investigative means exist and whether reasonable grounds exist to charge any person,' wrote officer David Younan in what is known as an 'Information to Obtain' (ITO) — an application by the police for a court order to seize potential evidence. Younan wrote in the heavily redacted document in 2022 that as part of the renewed probe, investigators discovered the existence of a group chat between the players from 2018. Some of their lawyers had actually turned the text messages over, and police were just waiting for a court order to view them. Records show that McLeod texted other players: 'Who wants to be in 3 way quick,' and Hart replied: 'I'm in.' In the days following the alleged incident, the players had texted each other about the Hockey Canada probe, with McLeod telling his teammates: 'We all need to say the same thing if we get interviewed can't have different stories or make anything up.' The police also needed a court order to seize the investigative file from that independent investigation, Younan wrote. He noted that Robitaille had told a House of Commons committee in 2022 that she was in possession of a 'range of evidence.' Younan expressed particular interest in the statements the players gave to Robitaille under penalty of being banned from Hockey Canada, statements a judge would later toss from the criminal case. While most of the players now on trial had spoken to London police in 2018 — when they were told upfront that there were no grounds to lay charges — they had declined to speak to police in 2022. 'It is reasonable to believe that Danielle Robitaille asked different questions of the players than our own investigators, and therefore, elicited different answers or new information about what occurred,' Younan wrote in the ITO. 'Any new information would also afford evidence.' Court records show police also re-interviewed several people, including the complainant's mother, who had found her distraught daughter rocking back and forth in the bathtub on June 19, 2018, repeating 'it's all my fault.' Her mother tried to find out what was going on, asking her if she had had a fight with her boyfriend. 'It's all my fault, I have to break up with (my boyfriend),' her mother reported her saying. The re-opened investigation focused on two elements, Younan wrote in the ITO: whether the complainant 'subjectively consented' to the sexual acts in the hotel room, and whether the players knew that the complainant did not consent. Unlike in 2018, Younan said in the ITO that London police now had grounds to believe a sexual assault had been committed. Pointing to the complainant's new 2022 statement, Younan said she 'most clearly expressed her subjective non-consent' when she wrote that she didn't want to do what they were making her do, and that she was unable to say no. While she may not have been physically prevented from leaving the hotel room, the complainant also felt like she couldn't leave given the number of 'large' men in the room, she said in her written 2022 statement sent to police. 'I was trying to say no, but I couldn't speak up and things were already happening,' she said. Younan wrote that when taking a global view of the evidence, the complainant 'subjectively believed that she had no alternative but to engage' in the sexual acts. 'Further, I believe that each of the suspects knew or ought to have known that (the complainant) had not consented.' In her meeting with the complainant just before charges were laid last year, Cunningham told her that while most of the news articles from 2022 'accept as true what is in your statement of claim,' the public's view of the case could shift as evidence was presented in court. She pointed to the video evidence in particular, while saying she doesn't look at the clips as proof of whether or not the complainant could consent. There is a 'real possibility that the current perception of what happened could change,' Cunningham said.
Hamilton Spectator
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Numb and on autopilot': Woman details alleged Hockey Canada sex assaults
Warning: This story contains graphic details of alleged sexual assault. After having consensual sex with hockey player Michael McLeod in his London, Ont., hotel room, a woman said she felt uncomfortable, vulnerable and scared as other men she didn't know began filing into the room while she was drunk and naked. Crown Meaghan Cunningham and the complainant, testifying by video. Before long, the woman told a jury on Monday, she was being asked by other players in the room to fondle herself on the floor, to perform oral sex on them as she was slapped and spat on, and to engage in vaginal intercourse. One man, she said, did the splits over her face while she was on the ground, his penis touching her face. She didn't want to do any of it, she insisted during her second day of testimony at the high-profile trial of five professional hockey players accused of sexual assault. But she felt as if her mind had separated from her body amid all the chaos and confusion, and that her body was engaging in the sexual activity in order to keep her safe in an intimidating environment. 'I felt kind of like I was numb and on autopilot and going through the motions,' she testified, 'watching it all happen and not feeling like I was able to control any of it.' McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman in the room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod, who had met the complainant earlier in the evening at Jack's Bar, has also pleaded not guilty to being a party to a sexual assault for allegedly encouraging his teammates on the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team to engage in sexual activities with the complainant when he knew she wasn't consenting. Text messages sent to the complainant within days of the alleged incident show that McLeod later became aware that police had been called, and he asked the complainant: 'What can you do to make this go away?' The players were in London at the time to attend the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event and to receive their rings for winning the championship. The Crown has alleged that McLeod had vaginal intercourse with the complainant a second time; that Formenton did as well, but in the bathroom; that McLeod, Dubé and Hart obtained oral sex from the complainant, and that it was Foote who did the splits over the complainant's face and his genitals 'grazed' her face. The woman, who was 20 at the time and is now 27, completed her examination-in-chief by Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham on Monday afternoon. She began being cross-examined by McLeod's lawyer, David Humphrey, who probed whether the woman agreed to participate in the police investigation due to pressure from family members and questioned whether one of the reasons she was upset was because she had cheated on her boyfriend that night. 'There was a part of me that definitely did feel like that because I was putting a lot of the blame on myself,' she told Humphrey, whose cross-examination continues Tuesday. 'I blamed myself for getting really drunk and not thinking straight for leaving with McLeod.' In two videos taken by McLeod in the hotel room and shown to the jury, the woman said she was 'OK with this' and that 'It was all consensual.' On Monday, she told the jury it very much wasn't. 'I think this is still a point where my mind is disconnected from my body,' she said under questioning by Cunningham about the 'consensual' video. 'I feel like I'm just saying what they're telling me to say or what they want to hear from me,' she said. Protestors outside the courthouse in London on Friday. For a second day, protesters stood outside the London courthouse's main entrance to show support for the complainant, holding up signs and chanting as the players, their lawyers, and the jury walked by them. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia told the jury she was looking into whether they could enter the building through a different entrance, while reminding them to only consider the evidence presented in court when deciding this case. 'You should totally disregard what you see as you walk in and out of this building,' she said. The complainant, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, told the jury on Friday that she met McLeod at Jack's Bar when she was very drunk, and agreed to go back to his hotel. After they had sex, she said on Monday, she saw McLeod appearing to text on his phone before he left the room. That's when two other men came in while she was still naked on the bed, she said. Michael McLeod films a selfie video with the complainant on the dance floor inside Jack's Bar. 'I was just really shocked by that,' she testified. 'I wasn't expecting that.' She believes she retreated to the bathroom but when she came out, there were even more men in the room. 'I felt really uncomfortable, I was already naked and drunk and feeling really vulnerable,' she testified. 'I didn't really understand why the man I had left (the bar) with had kind of disappeared and left me in that situation ... So I was feeling scared, I didn't know where things were going.' The jury has seen a text McLeod sent to his teammates in a group chat after 2 a.m. on June 19, 2018, about a 'three-way' in his room; Hart replied within minutes: 'I'm in.' The room became more 'amped up' and 'loud' as men gathered, said the complainant. A bedsheet was placed on the floor and she was asked by the men to fondle herself on it. She recalled them making comments about 'putting golf balls in me, in my vagina, and asking if I could take the whole club, put the whole golf club in me.' She said she laughed it off as she didn't know how else to react. 'It just sounded really kind of extreme and painful,' she testified via CCTV from a different room in the courthouse. 'I was kind of worried that that's already what they were asking to see. I didn't know where their minds were going to be for the rest of the night.' While she was on the floor, three men stood over her with their pants lowered, and she found herself on her knees giving them oral sex, she testified. 'They just start putting penises in my face,' she said, confirming under questioning by Cunningham that there had no prior discussion about oral sex. She said that other men in the room were egging each other on. Prosecutors intend to show that the woman was complying because she was surrounded by large men 'I was being told to 'Suck it,' commands like that,' the woman said. 'They were also yelling to 'spit,' and 'spit on it,' and at that point I started feeling someone spitting on my back as well.' She felt like she was 'just watching it all unfold' and wasn't an active participant in what her body was doing, the woman testified. 'I didn't know these men at all, I didn't know how they would react if I did try to say no or try to leave,' she said. 'My mind just kind of shut down and let my body do what it thought it needed to do to keep me safe.' After the oral sex, she was lying down again on the bed sheet when she said a fourth man with his pants off did the splits over her face. 'I didn't know that was about to happen,' she said. 'And he just put his penis on my face in that moment.' She said the men were urging each other to have sex with her, and that she felt she had no choice but to go into the bathroom, where she was followed by a man she later identified to police as Formenton — McLeod's roommate at the hotel that night. They had vaginal intercourse using a condom, she said. 'I just know I got up kind of expecting that this was just another thing I had to do, so I got up and he followed me to the bathroom,' she testified. She said she cried a few times that night and tried to get dressed to leave, but the men would coax her into staying. 'I heard someone say 'Oh, she's crying, don't let her go,'' the woman testified. 'And that's when they would approach me and just try to convince me that this is all fun, this is fine.' Toward the end of the night, the woman said she performed oral sex on McLeod on the bed as other players stood around — 'I thought if I could finish that up, then I could go.' She could hear someone saying 'No phones,' leading her to wonder if anyone had tried to record what was happening. Several people were also slapping her while she was on the bed with McLeod, she said. 'I remembered it was just multiple people and they were just taking turns trying to hit as hard as they could, and I think that did start to hurt at a certain point and I kind of told them to stop that,' she testified. Players eventually began leaving, and the woman recalled having intercourse with McLeod again in the bathroom, describing it as 'just one last thing I needed to do before I had to go.' She said McLeod and Formenton were anxious for her to leave so they could get to sleep, as they had to be up early to play golf. Moments after leaving, she returned looking for a missing ring, but didn't find it and said the two men were unhelpful as they just went back to their beds. As she made her way down to the lobby to take an Uber home, the complainant said she was hit by a wave of emotions, which she believes she had 'blocked' during her time in the room. She called her best friend, but said she thinks she was probably mostly incoherent on the call. The series of messages between Michael McLeod and the complainant. 'I was just crying uncontrollably and didn't know what else to do,' she said. 'I didn't want to be alone.' She returned home, where her mother found her crying in the shower, repeating 'It's all my fault.' Her mother called the police, while her mother's partner called Hockey Canada. McLeod got wind of the police being notified and messaged the complainant after tracking her down on Instagram, asking her to make it go away. At that point, the complainant herself wasn't sure if she wanted to proceed with a criminal investigation. 'I understand that you are embarrassed about what happened,' McLeod told the complainant. 'But you need to talk to your mother right now and straighten things out with the police before this goes too far. This is a serious matter that she is misrepresenting and could have significant implications for a lot of people, including you.' The complainant ultimately told McLeod that she told the police she didn't want to pursue the matter further 'and that it was a mistake. You should be good now hopefully nothing more comes of it. Sorry again for the misunderstanding.' But the complainant did pursue the matter with the police, telling the jury on Monday she sent that response to McLeod so that he would leave her alone. 'I appreciate you telling the truth,' McLeod told the woman in his final text to her. 'Thank you all the best.'
Hamilton Spectator
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
What we learned in the first week of the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial
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.
