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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.'
Toronto Star
05-05-2025
- Toronto Star
‘Autopilot': In graphic testimony, woman details alleged Hockey Canada sex assaults
Warning: This story contains details of alleged sexual assault. A young woman felt she was on 'autopilot' as she engaged in sexual activity with hockey players inside a London, Ont. hotel room in 2018, as they slapped and spat on her and asked if she could perform a sex act with a golf club, she told a jury Monday. It was the second day on the stand for the complainant in the sexual assault case of former 2018 world junior championship players Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, and Cal Foote. The woman, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, had told the jury Friday afternoon that she met McLeod at Jack's Bar the evening of June 18, 2018, when she was very drunk. The then-20-year-old woman agreed to go back to McLeod's room at the Delta Armouries hotel, where they had consensual sex, but then afterward noticed him on his phone. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Soon after, she said on Monday, other men were filing into the room while she was still naked. Someone placed a bedsheet on the floor and the woman was asked to lie on it and to touch herself, she testified. And then three men lined up so she could perform oral sex on them. Canada I was drunk and 'uncomfortable' at bar with Canada world juniors, woman testifies at sex assault trial 'I definitely feel like my inhibitions were lowered the more I drank,' the woman testified about 'They just start putting penises in my face,' she said, confirming under questioning by Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham that there had no prior discussion about oral sex. She said that other men in the room were egging each other on. '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 described feeling as if her mind had separated from her body and 'floated to the top corner of the ceiling,' and that she was now just watching her body doing what the men wanted. 'I felt kind of like I was numb and on autopilot and going through the motions,' she testified Monday, 'watching it all happen and not feeling like I was able to control any of it.' She described feeling scared and intimidated, surrounded by a group of large men she did not know. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'In my mind, it wasn't what I wanted to be doing,' she testified. 'I felt like I didn't really have any other option. It was my body's way of reacting in that situation. It seemed like the only safe thing to do was to give them what they were wanting, and I think that was my body's way of just kind of protecting me from that situation.' Star Columnists Opinion Rosie DiManno: Guilty or not, the Hockey Canada sex assault trial is exposing a sordid culture A sense of puzzlement is hanging over the entire scene, Rosie DiManno writes. What would possess The players, who now range in age from 25 to 27, were in town for 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, Dube and Hart obtained oral sex from the complainant, and that Foote did the splits over the complainant's face and his genitals 'grazed' her face. The complainant, now 27, testified she noticed golf clubs in the room, and recalled men '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 the comments made her very uncomfortable, but she just 'laughed it off' as she didn't know how else to react. The woman also testified about a man — she didn't identify who — suddenly doing the splits over her face while she was lying on the bedsheet on the floor. 'I didn't know that was about to happen,' she said, 'and he just put his penis right on my face in that moment.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW A pair of stills from videos showing the dance floor inside Jack's Bar in London, Ont., on the night of June 18-19, 2018, show the complainant with world junior team members Dillon Dubé, circled left, and Michael McLeod, right. Ontario Superior Court Exhibit She said the men were urging each other to have sex with the woman, 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, who was 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. 'I don't recall any conversation.' She said she cried a few times that night and tried to get dressed to leave, but the men would always 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.' Her testimony continues Monday.
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.
Hamilton Spectator
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
‘It was all consensual,' alleged victim in Canada world junior hockey sex assault case said on video
LONDON, Ont.—Smiling and wrapping herself in a towel, the young woman looks into the camera and says: 'It was all consensual.' At the high-profile trial of five professional hockey players accused of sexual assault, the jury on Wednesday viewed a brief cellphone video taken of the 20-year-old complainant in the hotel room after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the players in the early hours of June 19, 2018. 'Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,' says the woman on the video, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban. '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.' Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel shared by McLeod and Formenton. The players 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. All but Formenton were playing in the NHL at the time of their arrests in 2024. The Crown alleges 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.' At trial, the Crown intends to show that the complainant wasn't actually consenting in the room, but rather complying as she was in an enclosed space surrounded by large men she didn't know while she was drunk, naked, and separated from her friends at the bar. Also Wednesday, jurors got a very brief glimpse into the hotel room from then-2018 junior championship team member and current Washington Capitals player Taylor Raddysh, who recalled being in the room briefly and seeing a woman, but not much else. 'I don't really have any recollection of what I saw in that room,' Raddysh testified under questioning by the prosecution. The jury was shown a text message McLeod sent to Raddysh around 2 a.m. on June 19 saying: 'Come to my room if u want a gummer.' Raddysh told the jury the term meant oral sex, but said he did not remember seeing the text at the time — nor could he remember much about the events of that night. From left to right, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé and Carter Hart are seen playing with their former NHL teams. The complainant had met McLeod at a bar on the evening of June 18, 2018, and returned to his hotel room where they had sex. The Crown is only alleging that a second instance of sex between McLeod and the complainant was sexual assault. The jury on Wednesday saw a text message sent by McLeod to other members of the team about a '3 way' in his room, and Hart replying: 'I'm in.' The Crown has told the jury that up to 10 men filed into the room throughout the night. On Wednesday, the jury also viewed another brief clip of the complainant, taken in the room at about 3:25 a.m. She's asked by a voice off-camera if she's 'OK with this,' and responds: 'I'm OK with this.' The slightly lengthier video was taken around 4:26 a.m., about 20 minutes before the complainant is seen on camera leaving the hotel, walking steadily in heels down the stairs and toward the exit, where she leaves in an Uber. Both videos were taken on McLeod's phone and provided by him to the police in July 2018. The videos were entered as exhibits Wednesday during the testimony of London police Det. Tiffany Waque, who walked the jury through a number of other videos, including surveillance footage at Jack's Bar where McLeod and the complainant first met and can be seen dancing together on a crowded dance floor before leaving the bar together just before 2 a.m. Crown attorney Heather Donkers had given the jury a heads up about the hotel room videos in her opening statement on Monday, and urged them to listen closely to the complainant's testimony about them once she takes the stand in the coming days. Donkers told the jury the complainant is not expected to testify that she ever said no to any of the specific sexual acts, nor did she physically resist. Witnesses are also expected to testify that she was asking people in the room to have sex with her. '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, who is prosecuting the case with Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham, the chair of the Crown office's sexual violence advisory group. Washington Capitals forward Taylor Raddysh, seen here in a game in Anaheim on March 11. '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.' Raddysh zoomed into the London courtroom Wednesday from Arlington, Va., where he testified he recalled being in McLeod's room for a 'very short time' after McLeod and Katchouk had come to his door. (He could not recall Wednesday what the men had said to him, but noted that he told London police in 2022 they said something like: 'Just come and hang out for a bit.') Once in McLeod's room, he saw McLeod, Katchouk and a woman he said he believes was on the bed. But what position she was in, whether she was wearing clothes and whether she said anything to him, Raddysh said he could not recall. 'Sitting here today, I don't remember,' Raddysh testified. During his questioning by Cunningham, Raddysh could be seen on camera looking down several times. Hart's lawyer, Megan Savard, asked that he let the court know if and when he was looking at transcripts of his interviews given to investigations related to the case, as Savard noted the 'obvious poor quality of his memory.' A few days after the alleged incident, on June 26, 2018, Raddysh sent McLeod two messages that were shown to the jury: 'Bully just called me' and 'said there's an investigation.' Raddysh testified that 'Bully' likely referred to Hockey Canada official Shawn Bullock calling him about an investigation into what may have happened in London. He said he recalled calling his father about it, and sending messages to McLeod and team member Brett Howden, who was Raddysh's roommate at the Delta Armouries. How did he feel about being told there was going to be an investigation, Cunningham asked Raddysh. 'I don't remember how I felt, to be exact,' Raddysh testified.
