An Ontario judge will render his decision today in the sexual assault trial of five former members of the Canadian world junior hockey team, the culmination of a complex case that has fueled ongoing discussions on consent and sports culture.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Fote all pleaded not guilty of sexual assault that would have occurred in a hotel chamber in London, Ontario, in the early morning on June 19, 2018.
McLeod, whom the prosecutors accuse of having acted as a “leader” that evening, also pleaded not guilty to a distinct accusation of complicity in the offense of sexual assault.
The players, who are now aged 25 to 27, were in London at that time for a gala and a golf tournament highlighting their victory in the championship.
The court learned that the complainant had had sex with McLeod, whom she had met in a city center bar earlier in the evening. This relationship is not in question in the trial.
The accusations relate to what happened after the entry of several other players in the room, the consent being at the heart of the case.
Prosecutors allege that McLeod orchestrated a “campaign” to bring his friends into the room so that they engage in sexual acts with the woman, without having warned her and without her consent.
The woman did not voluntarily consent to the sexual acts that took place in the play, supported the crown, and the players did not take reasonable measures to confirm that she had done so, despite circumstances that would require increased prudence.
Defense maintains that the woman actively participated in sexual activity and sometimes prompted men to join her, but that she then invented a false story to get out of all responsibility.
She maintains that she presented herself in court with a premeditated plan and exaggerated her level of drunkenness that evening to support her story and explain her inconsistencies.
McLeod, Hart and Dube are accused of having had oral sex with women without her consent, and Dube is also accused of having slapped her when she engaged in a sexual act with another person. Form is accused of having had vaginal sex with the complainant in the toilet without her consent, and Fote is accused of having made the big gap on her face and of having “rubbed” her genitals without his consent.
The lawyers of McLeod, Hart, form and Dube argue that the woman had consented to sexual acts with their customers, while Fote lawyer argued that he was entirely dressed when he made the big partial gap on his body and did not touch it at all.
Invitations par SMS
The court learned that McLeod had sent an SMS to a team’s discussion group shortly after 2 am, asking if someone wanted a “three plan”, indicating their room number. Hart replied that he was “ready”, according to screenshots presented at the trial.
He also sent an SMS to another teammate, Taylor Radady, telling him to come to the room if he wanted a “gummer”, which, according to Radady, meant a blowjob.
McLeod made a comment similar to Boris Katchouk, another player who briefly stopped in his room, learned the court. McLeod did not mention any of these police interactions during an interview in 2018, saying rather that he said to “a few guys” that he commanded to eat and that a girl was in his room, and that he did not understand “how these guys continued to arrive”.
The victim, who testified for more than a week, told court that he was naked and drunk when strangers began to enter the room.
Men seemed to make fun of her as they discussed the sexual acts they wanted her to perform, she said, and she felt her mind “turn off” while her body was moving into “automatic pilot”.
Two teammates called as witnesses of the crown, Brett Howden and Tyler Steenbergen, testified that the woman had asked the group if someone would accept to have sex with her. Hart, the only accused player who testified for his own defense, corroborated this version.
When it was presented to her in a counter-examination, the woman said that she did not remember having made such comments, but that, if it had happened, it was because she was drunk and that she had adopted the character of a “porn star” as an adaptation mechanism.
The trial began at the end of April and first took place before a jury, but judge Maria Carroccia from the Superior Court dissolved it twice. The trial ended before the judge alone in order to avoid starting him again.
Nine witnesses delivered their version of the facts, most of them from a distance, including the complainant, who testified by videoconference from another room in the courthouse.
