Hockey Canada trial: Carter Hart claims woman was 'sexually demanding'

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Carter Hart said he believes if anyone had been offside with the woman in Canadian world junior hockey teammate Michael McLeod’s hotel room, he would have said something, done something or simply left.

For example, when Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham pressed him on whether he saw the woman being slapped hard on the behind during the encounter on June 19, 2018, Hart – who admits he was so drunk he has only flashes of memory from that night – said he had no recollection of that happening.

“It’s hard to say because I don’t think anybody would have done anything to hurt her,” Hart said.

If she had been slapped hard, he said, he would have noticed. “I think if something would have happened that she wasn’t okay with or didn’t want, I would have put a stop to it. Other guys would have, I would have left. I don’t think I would have stayed in that room for as long as I did.”

But Cunningham pointed out during her cross-examination of the former Philadelphia Flyers goaltender that because he has limited memories of his hour in the room, she suggested that it was possible he did see something – like a hard slap – and has no memory of it.

“No. . . . I wouldn’t have stayed in the room,” Hart said.

“During my time in the room, I never saw anything like that and I do remember it being really late when I did leave and we had to be up in two hours,” he added. He never felt “that things were getting out of hand.”

Hart, 26; McLeod, 27; Alex Formenton, 25; Dillon Dube, 26; and Cal Foote, 26 – all members of the 2018 Team Canada world junior championship team – have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault at the high-profile trial that began late last month. McLeod has pleaded not guilty to a second sexual assault charge for being a party to an offence.

The allegations centre on what happened in Room 209 of London’s Delta Armouries hotel on June 19, 2018. McLeod brought a girl back to the room from Jack’s bar on Richmond Row. The team was in London for a Hockey Canada gala and golf tournament.

The woman, now 27, was 20 at the time of the events and her identity is protected by a court order. She has testified that after consensual sex with McLeod, at least 10 team members came into the room where she said she was repeatedly forced into unwanted sexual activities.

The five accused, however, have countered that the woman was the sexual aggressor who wanted McLeod to invite them in for “a wild night.” They claim she taunted and begged the assembled crew for sex, and consented to all sexual activity.

Hart is the first of the accused to testify after the Crown closed its case on Thursday. McLeod has already opted not to call any additional evidence.

Hart, who hasn’t played professionally since January 2024 when the charges were laid by the London police after re-investigating the matter, has been forthright about what he did with the woman. He recalled arriving in the room to find her naked on a bedsheet on the floor, surrounded by several other players.

He said the two-day visit to London marked only the third time he had ever consumed alcohol. He described a long, boozy night that began with an open bar at the gala and continued into the early morning.

He’s also admitted to be being “open” to a sexual encounter in London because he was 19 and single. Hart agreed he sent a text out to the team at about 1 a.m. while at Jack’s, asking if anyone wanted to go see some “rippers,” meaning strippers. After 2 a.m., as he walked back to the hotel with Formenton and another player, he responded “I’m in” to McLeod’s text about a “3-way.”

He told Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia that when the woman asked the men to have sex with her and no one responded, he asked her for oral sex. He said she consented, grabbed his crotch over his shorts, pulled them down, and performed oral sex for about 30 seconds to a minute. He kept his hands on his hips, he testified.

He told Cunningham that he was “pretty confident” he was the first man to receive sexual activity from the woman once the men were in the room and after she had asked for someone to have sex with her while she was pleasuring herself.

“Throughout the whole night, she was the one to ask guys to do things with her continuously,” he said.

“I’d never experienced seeing a girl act like that . . . forward and sexually demanding. I just couldn’t believe she was saying these things and comfortable enough to say these things in front of a group of people.”

Hart said her demands were so constant that he texted teammate Dante Fabbro – also single – to come to the room. Cunningham suggested that Hart wouldn’t have invited Fabbro unless he thought what was happening was “fun and exciting.”

“I think I felt that maybe he was open to it,” Hart said, agreeing he found the situation exciting.

Hart also recalled Formenton, who had sexual intercourse with the woman, being led into the bathroom by the woman. He said he saw Foote do the splits, his party trick, over the naked woman after chants of “Footer, do the splits.” He insisted Foote had his clothes on, only dropped to a “three-quarter split,” and that everyone, including the woman, laughed.

“I know that his legs never touched her body,” he added.

Cunningham said the reason Foote was being encouraged was “to keep the party going” and asked Hart if he knew the meaning of a graphic sexual term.

Cunningham said that would be “exciting” for the players.

“I think that would be pretty weird,” Hart said.

“Well the whole night was weird, wasn’t it?” Cunningham shot back.

Cunningham suggested that the players “couldn’t believe (their) luck” to be in a hotel room with a naked woman. Hart agreed that at age 19, he thought what was happening was “pretty cool.”

Cunningham asked Hart about the two “consent” videos recorded by McLeod where it appeared that the woman was consenting to all sexual activity. Hart said he didn’t know about them until he was preparing for trial.

He said it never occurred to him to record consent because it seemed obvious she was consenting. But he wouldn’t agree that someone would think of recording a consent video if there was a possibility someone might say later they weren’t consenting.

“Lots of professional athletes have done these things before,” he said.

The trial continues.

jsims@postmedia.com