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Toronto Star
28-05-2025
- Toronto Star
‘This interview could be used as evidence': Hockey Canada trial gets to witness player's dawning realization of the trouble he's in
Just a bunch of junior hockey players sitting around in a hotel room, chowing on mozzarella sticks and chicken wings, 'round about 2:30 in the morning — with a naked woman on the bed. What is wrong with this picture? Where to start? That was the scene Michael McLeod drew for a police detective, recalling the events of June 19, 2018. From his lawyer's office, McLeod had willingly submitted to a lengthy interview with Det. Steve Newton, an investigator with the sexual assault and child abuse unit of the London Police Service. It was Nov. 17, 2018, and Newton had already twice interviewed the young woman at the centre of the complaint. Canada 'Awkward and weird': Hockey Canada trial sees players' video interviews from 2018 London police investigation Michael McLeod told police in a 2018 interview that he recorded the complainant giving consent because 'it was a weird situation that I wasn't Canada 'Awkward and weird': Hockey Canada trial sees players' video interviews from 2018 London police investigation Michael McLeod told police in a 2018 interview that he recorded the complainant giving consent because 'it was a weird situation that I wasn't Newton had concluded there were no grounds for laying charges, and he'd stressed that point to McLeod. 'I don't feel I have the necessary grounds for sexual assault. I don't have any plans to arrest you and charge you. I'm not detaining you. You can leave at any time.' He cautioned, however: 'Just understand that if something should change and I do (charge you), this interview could be used as evidence.' That's exactly by the book. Newton, after speaking to the complainant, had wondered whether she'd been an 'active participant' to what unfolded in that hotel room between the then-20-year-old woman and a number of men, members of the Canadian 2018 world junior championship team. The players had been in London, Ont., for a Hockey Canada gala and charity event before moving along to a club called Jack's Bar, where they made the acquaintance of E.M. — her name has been protected by a publication ban. It was, the court has heard, E.M.'s mother who initially contacted police after finding her daughter crying in the shower. Nearly six years would pass — one police investigation closed, another police investigation later opened — before five players were charged with sexual assault. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote and Carter Hart have all pleaded not guilty. McLeod is the only one among them facing two charges — sexual assault and being a party to a sexual assault, for allegedly encouraging his teammates to engage in sex acts with the complainant when he knew she wasn't consenting. 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 But, on that November day when McLeod first sat across from Newton, he likely had merely an inkling of where this all might lead — to one of the most high-profile trials in the country, leaving five NHL careers in tatters and one shattered complainant. On Tuesday, for the first time, the court heard McLeod's own voice speaking at length as an hour and a half of that recorded interview was played at the judge-alone trial. By the end of Part I, the look on McLeod's face suggested a dawning of realization, the trouble he might be in, they were all in. Between then and now, lives were severely disrupted, a $3.5 lawsuit against Hockey Canada by E.M. settled (the amount agreed has never been disclosed), shame for players and their families, public outrage, criminal indictments and disgrace splashing across Canada's most beloved sport. There was fear in McLeod's eyes. McLeod recounted how he and E.M. had left the bar and, by mutual agreement, retired to his room at the Delta Armouries. 'We got back to the hotel. We had sex.' In her own testimony earlier, E.M. agreed that a specific sexual episode was consensual. But not what ensued over the next couple of hours when up to 10 of McLeod's teammates filed through Room 209. After Hart arrived, McLeod went downstairs to pick up the Uber Eats order he'd placed. When he returned, he told Newton, 'I walked in and she was giving Carter oral sex.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Hart and McLeod began eating, joined shortly by three or four more teammates — the number would continue to grow. While E.M. lay nude on the bed. This apparently struck no one as a bad look. 'We were hanging out,' McLeod told Newton, 'but not blacked out drunk. We had our heads on straight. 'She got up on the bed and said 'Who wants to have sex with me? Who's going to step up and have sex with me?'' 'We were all stunned.' McLeod's roommate, Formenton, arrived. 'She wanted to have sex with him. He didn't want to do it in front of us.' Instead, E.M. and Formenton went into the bathroom, re-emerging within 15 minutes. 'Later she offered to give everyone blowjobs. I got one. Carter got one.' Which would make it two BJs for Hart, for those keeping score. 'Maybe Dubé.' In his interview, McLeod moves backward and forward in the sequence of events. It's somewhat difficult to follow the timeline. He said E.M. became upset, hurt, when there were no takers. 'I had to calm her down.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Indeed, throughout the interview, McLeod presents himself as the considerate person in the room, constantly asking E.M. if she was OK. He would take two separate phone videos of E.M. asserting her willingness. 'It was a weird situation,' McLeod continued. 'That wasn't what I was expecting would happen.' Which doesn't align with evidence the court has heard that McLeod had texted several teammates: 'Who wants to be in a three-way quick Room 209.' The judge-alone trial has heard that McLeod, Hart and Dubé obtained oral sex from E.M.; that, without her consent, Dubé slapped E.M. on her naked buttocks when she was performing oral sex; that Formenton had vaginal intercourse with E.M. in the bathroom; and that, without her consent, Foote did the splits over E.M.'s face while she lay on a sheet on the floor, grazing his genitals over her face in what's known — new word alert, for me — as 'teabagging.' By 4 a.m., most of the players had left. McLeod shot another video in which, as he recalled, E.M. said: 'I had fun! I consented to all of this. Why are you so paranoid?' McLeod hopped into the shower. E.M. followed. 'We had sex.' E.M. then became distressed because she couldn't find her ring. They searched together, along with Formenton. 'She did calm down a bit, but I could tell she was upset when she left. 'And that was the end of the night.'
Hamilton Spectator
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Awkward and weird': Hockey Canada trial sees players' video interviews from 2018 London police investigation
It was a 'weird situation' to have a woman demanding to have sex with his teammates in his hotel room, hockey player Michael McLeod told police in a 2018 interview , which is why he said he constantly checked in with her and recorded her giving consent. London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with The high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial heard McLeod in his own words for the first time on Tuesday, as his November 2018 video-recorded interview to London police detective Steve Newton was played in court while Newton was testifying as a Crown witness. '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,' said McLeod, seated in a room at his Toronto lawyer's office in a white shirt and dark jacket. 'I was just kind of worried something like this might happen.' That's why he took a video of the woman in the room on his phone, in which he asks her if she's 'OK with this' and she says, smiling, that she is. That video has previously been shown at trial , along with a slightly longer video taken later in the night, in which the woman says: 'It was all consensual.' The woman has testified she was just saying what she thought the men wanted to hear . McLeod had met the then-20-year-old complainant, whose identity is covered by a publication ban, at Jack's Bar in London, Ont. and they returned to his room at the Delta Armouries hotel where they had consensual sex in the early hours of June 19, 2018. But then multiple members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team came in afterward, with the woman testifying this month she went 'numb' and in 'autopilot' mode as she engaged in the sexual activity as a coping mechanism as she was surrounded by large men she didn't know. The jury has heard — in graphic detail — her allegations about what took place inside a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. The jury has heard — in graphic detail — her allegations about what took place inside a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman, and 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 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. Newton was the lead investigator on the case in 2018, after the woman's mother called police and her mother's partner called Hockey Canada. He interviewed the complainant several times, as well as most of the players now on trial, and found he did not have grounds to believe a crime had been committed, something he told the players upfront before interviewing them. As the Star has reported, Newton wondered in his report whether the complainant was an 'active participant' in the events of June 18-19, 2018, and found that the consent videos and surveillance footage of the woman walking unaided in heels led him to doubt that she was too intoxicated to consent, as she had told police. He closed the investigation in February 2019. The complainant exits the lobby of the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018, soon after leaving the hotel room where she alleges she was sexually assaulted by five members of the Canadian world junior hockey team. Source: Ontario Superior Court exhibit As part of Newton's investigation, he reviewed individual photos of members of the junior championship team with the complainant, and wrote down her comments next to each one as to whether she recognized them or not. The players were charged in 2024 after London police reopened their criminal investigation amid intense public pressure, after it was reported Hockey Canada had settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit filed by the woman against the organization and eight unnamed John Doe players. A composite image of London police Det. Steve Newton's handwritten notes on the complainant's comments during a June 26, 2018, photo-identification interview. In the part of the interview played in court Tuesday before the lunch break, McLeod doesn't mention that he sent a text in a players' group chat about a '3 way' in his room just after 2 a.m. on June 19, 2018, which has been entered as an exhibit at trial. He told Newton that after he and the woman had sex, a few men came into the room, and he left them with the woman while he went down to the lobby to get food he had ordered on Ubereats; when he came back up, he said he saw Hart receiving oral sex from the complainant. A screenshot of a group chat involving members of Canada's 2018 world junior championship team, including a text from Michael McLeod inviting his teammates to his hotel room for a three-way. 'She seemed completely fine with it, and the other guys were just kind of hanging out on the bed,' he said. 'It was kind of a little different, but we ate the food and hung out, had chicken wings. And after that, it didn't last too long, the blowjob, and then we kind of just hung out after for a bit.' And then more men came into the room, McLeod said, bringing the total to eight or nine players. 'We were really drunk, but we weren't blackout drunk by any means,' he said. 'Like, we all had our heads on straight for the most part.' McLeod said the woman was naked and then got on the bed, asking something along the lines of: 'Who wants to have sex with me? Who's going to step up and have sex with me?' McLeod said it was surprising, as no one wanted to have sex with her in front of the other men. He said she was referring to the men as 'pussies.' The men would just look at each other, he said, 'like this is pretty weird, like you do it, you do it.' McLeod said the woman would become upset that no one wanted to have sex with her. 'I had to like kind of calm her down and kind of say like 'Are you OK?' 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. 'Later on, we're hanging out again, and she's feeling better and she was offering to give guys blowjobs,' McLeod went on. 'I got one, and Carter Hart got another one, and maybe Dillon Dube.' He said he and the complainant had sex a final time in the shower when most of the men had left. One of the other men who was willing to have sex with the woman was Formenton, McLeod's hotel roommate that night, but in the bathroom out of view of the other men. He told Newton most of the men had been resisting the woman's demands because they had girlfriends. 'So I volunteered,' he told Newton in a November 2018 video-recorded interview entered as an exhibit during pre-trial hearings. 'But I obviously didn't want to do that in front of guys, I found that very awkward and weird. So we both walked into the washroom and that's where we had intercourse.' He echoed McLeod's comments that the woman was getting upset and frustrated that few men wanted to have sex with her. Newton asked him if it was possible she was upset because she was embarrassed with what was going on '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. 'But really, it was just because everyone had girlfriends and no one found it not awkward to do that in front of people.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Canadian World Junior Player Testifies About What Was Said In Hotel Room On Night Of Alleged Sexual Assault
Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers. A former Canadian world junior team member testifying in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial said a woman asked the men in a London, Ont., hotel room for sex when an alleged assault occurred. Tyler Steenbergen is a former member of Canada's 2018 World Junior Championship squad. Five of his teammates – Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote – have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual assault, with McLeod pleading not guilty to an additional charge of sexual assault as party to the offense. The charges the former NHLers face are in relation to a 2018 incident in which a woman, referred to in court documents as E.M., alleges the men sexually assaulted her following a Hockey Canada gala. Steenbergen has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Once the Crown's re-examination of the complainant wrapped up in the mid-afternoon on Wednesday, Steenbergen appeared virtually to begin his Crown testimony for the jury. After asking Steenbergen about his time at Jack's Bar – where E.M. initially met McLeod and other players – the night of the alleged assault, assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers shifted to the events that occurred in Room 209 of the Delta Armouries Hotel in London. Steenbergen said he initially went to the room because he received a text that there was 'food in McLeod's room.' He also testified that once he's in the room, he heard someone say, 'Guys, there's a naked girl in the bathroom.' Just before this, Steenbergen said he remembers seeing other players in the room, including Jake Bean and Dube, who entered together. Other players included Sam Steel, Hart, Maxime Comtois, Drake Batherson, McLeod, Brett Howden and Formenton. Bean, Steel, Comtois, Batherson and Howden are not accused of any wrongdoing. Steenbergen testified that a woman exited the bathroom unclothed, made her way to a bed sheet on the floor of the room, began masturbating and saying, 'Can one of you guys come over and f--- me?' Steenbergen testified that after this question, Hart made his way over to the woman and received oral sex from her. Donkers then asked what the atmosphere was like in the room during that moment. 'I feel like when she asked the guys to come over to have sex with her, I feel like everyone was in shock that she had said that,' Steenbergen said. He also said he remembered that after the woman had finished giving oral sex to Hart, she told the guys they were 'being p-----s' and then proceeded to give oral sex to McLeod. Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial: Defense Lawyer Questions E.M. On Cal Foote's Alleged 'Party Trick' Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers. Before Steenbergen began his testimony, the jury saw the Crown's re-examination of the complainant. A major focus was put on re-examining her responses to when Foote allegedly did the splits over top of her, grazing her face with his genitals. Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham asked E.M. to explain further part of her statement to police from June 22, 2018, in which she said, 'It was just funny to them, like, 'Do this,' like, the one just did the splits on my face, just to put it in my face, kinda.' E.M. clarified that the 'it' she was referring to was, 'his penis, in my face.' This line of questioning ended nearly nine days of the complainant's testimony before the jury. This included her Crown testimony, parts of seven days of the defense's cross-examination and Wednesday's Crown re-examination. The trial is expected to resume Thursday morning with the continuation of Steenbergen's Crown testimony.
CBC
13-05-2025
- CBC
Defence suggests woman wasn't as drunk as she says on night of alleged assaults
The Latest The last of five defence teams is expected to finish cross-examining the complainant, E.M. One lawyer has suggested E.M. was not as drunk as she says she was, pointing in part to the complainant's ability to walk in high heels. Counsel also zeroed in on a conversation between E.M. and her friend, a bouncer at Jack's bar, on the night of the alleged sexual assaults. Julianna Greenspan suggested she purposely did not report it to police because E.M.'s friend would have testified she was not drunk. E.M. said that is not true and that she simply forgot. The accused — Dillon Dubé, Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Michael McLeod — have all pleaded not guilty. WARNING: Court proceedings include graphic details of alleged sexual assault and might affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who's been affected.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial: Defense Presses Complainant About Boyfriend And Inconsistencies
Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers. A defense lawyer for one of five former players on Canada's 2018 world junior team facing sexual assault charges suggested the complainant made up the story of sexual assault as a way to save her relationship with her boyfriend. The cross-examination is part of a trial that sees five former members of Canada's 2018 World Junior Championship team – former NHLers Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote – each pleading not guilty to one count of sexual assault. McLeod also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of sexual assault as party to the offense. These charges are connected to an incident from June 2018 in which E.M., the complainant whose identity is protected by a publication ban, alleges she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room following a Hockey Canada gala. On Wednesday, Hart's defense lawyer, Megan Savard, cross-examined the complainant after McLeod's lawyer, David Humphrey, concluded his questions on Tuesday. In part of her cross-examination, Savard continued a line of questioning Humphrey introduced, regarding the boyfriend of three months the complainant had at the time of the alleged incident. Savard took this a step further, though, confirming with E.M. that she and that same boyfriend are currently engaged to be married and also suggesting the complainant fabricated the sexual assault aspect of her story as a way to avoid her boyfriend ending their relationship. 'I am suggesting that part of why you're so resistant this week to some of (Humphrey's) suggestions that you actively participated (in the sexual activity) is because you know that story actually could have been a relationship-ender,' Savard said. E.M. said she did not believe herself to be an active participant in the alleged acts. She said she felt 'out of my body,' a sentiment she has repeated throughout her Crown testimony and cross-examination to explain part of why she went along with the alleged acts. E.M. also said she did consider initially leaving Jack's Bar with McLeod and having consensual sex with him at the Delta Armouries Hotel as 'sort of cheating' on her boyfriend, but what happened afterward, while multiple men were in the room, was not consensual and not cheating. She also said her fiance has not been keeping an eye on the trial, saying he is 'staying really far removed from it' and that she hasn't shared details of the alleged sexual assault with him. 'Unless he asked for details or wanted to know, it was mutually agreed we didn't need to get into that,' she said. Much of the beginning of Savard's questioning centered around a statement of claim E.M. provided to Hockey Canada on July 20, 2022. E.M. said that some portions of this statement are incorrect, particularly compared to the statements the complainant provided to London police in 2018. E.M. said the 2022 statement was prepared for her by her lawyers at the time and that she did not refer to her 2018 transcripts when reviewing and signing off on it, as she believed the 2022 investigation was just for Hockey Canada and had no criminal implications. Savard pressed the complainant further on the inconsistencies of the 2022 statement, as well as her reasoning given on Tuesday. 'I'm going to suggest that every word of your explanation to Mr. Humphrey for why these inaccuracies existed is false,' Savard said. E.M. didn't agree with the suggestion, but Savard went on to suggest that on the morning of July 20, 2022, London police detective Lindsay Ryan met with the complainant at her home to tell her the police were re-opening their investigation. Savard suggested it was later that day that E.M. signed her statement to Hockey Canada, before letting Ryan know that her statement of claim could be obtained through her lawyers. The complainant said she didn't know the exact dates. 'I truly believe that when I signed this (statement of claim to Hockey Canada), that I didn't know that it was being reopened yet,' E.M. said. 'I thought this was for a separate investigation. I didn't know it was all going together eventually.' Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial: Defense Continues To Cross-Examine Complainant Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial: Defense Continues To Cross-Examine Complainant Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers. Savard eventually shifted to the alleged incident in the hotel room, citing a meeting that E.M. had on March 26, 2025 – just under a month before the trial began – in which the complainant claimed that during the alleged assault, she 'took on the persona of a porn star.' Savard used this mention of 'persona' in her line of questioning, asking if E.M. was acting like a 'porn star.' 'Yes, I felt that was the thing they (the men in the hotel room) wanted. They were trying to recreate a porn scene,' E.M. said. Through the discussion of what occurred in the hotel room, E.M. also said she was on 'autopilot' and that her body was having an 'automatic reaction' while in the hotel room. She also expressed this in her Crown testimony on Monday. The questioning then returned to the topic of the complainant's 2022 statement to Hockey Canada, pointing out that E.M. had misidentified two men, current Dallas Stars center Sam Steel and Florida Panthers left winger Jonah Gadjovich, as part of the group of players that allegedly sexually assaulted her. Steel and Gadjovich have not been criminally charged in this case. Savard suggested the complainant didn't take great care with who she was naming, to which E.M. replied she 'wasn't intentionally trying to do that.' Savard continued pressing on these inaccuracies, with E.M. attempting to explain that it was her lawyers, not her, who wrote the statement. Eventually, the complainant began to cry, at which point the presiding judge, Justice Maria Carroccia, ended the proceedings for the day. Savard's cross-examination of E.M. is expected to continue on Thursday.
