The five hockey players of the 2018 team of team Canada Junior accused of sexual assault were recognized as not guilty on Thursday by judge Maria Carroccia, at the London courthouse.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Fote were accused in a case dates back to June 2018. The complainant, appointed by the initials EM, claimed to have been sexually assaulted in a London hotel room, after a party organized by Hockey Canada to underline the conquest of the gold medal five months earlier in the junior world championship.
The five players were accused of sexual assault. A sixth charging charging chief of sexual assault was also deposited against McLeod.
The crown now has 30 days to appeal the decision.
According to the media on the spot, judge Maria Carroccia considered that the complainant was “neither credible nor reliable”. She also noted inconsistencies in her testimony, notably raising contradictions between what she had first entrusted to the police, and her testimony in court.
Among other contradictions, the judge stressed the fact that the complainant responded to a friend, who was with her at the start of the evening, that she was “correct”, when the friend in question asked if she was in trouble with one of the five accused, Michael McLeod. The judge added that the complainant had not responded to the subsequent messages of the friend, nor to a telephone call.
Judge Carroccia also considered that the consent of the complainant – a concept at the heart of this case – had “not been influenced by fear”.
The magistrate also indicated that in the so -called consent video recorded after the events – video recorded at the request of MCLEOD – the complainant shows “no index of poisoning” or difficulty in expressing themselves. “She exaggerated her degree of intoxication,” said the judge later, in her analysis.
In a more global way, during her analysis, Judge Carroccia stressed that the complainant often referred to “her truth”, rather than “the truth”, which leads the judge to question the objectivity of EM’s testimony
In the end, recalled the judge, the crown had to prove three elements out of any reasonable doubt in order to demonstrate that there was sexual assault: that the victim was affected, that these contacts were sexual, and that these contacts of a sexual nature were not consensual. With the testimonies, she determined that the first two criteria were founded.
This is the question of consent which was to be decided, and it is on this point that the proof presented by the crown has proven inconclusive. The judge also recalled that several accused described the complainant as a person actively looking for sex during the evening in question.
This affair, discovered in 2022, caused a scandal at Hockey Canada and generated attention at the national level. Thursday morning, the players were also heckled by a hundred demonstrators when they arrived at the London courthouse, according to Sean Gentil, a journalist from The Athletic on the spot.
The CBC reports that the complainant follows the reading of the judgment at a distance and that she is not present at the London courthouse.
