Testimony finishes in Hockey Canada trial as defence rests case
Testimony has finished in the trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team accused of sexually assaulting a woman
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Defence teams have finished calling evidence in the trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a downtown London hotel room seven years ago.
London police Det. Lyndsay Ryan, who was assigned to review the high-profile case after police initially closed it without laying charges, was the final witness to take the stand.
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Ryan testified Monday she was asked to review the sexual assault allegations by the complainant, whose identity is protected by a court order, about what happened inside room 209 of the Delta Armouries hotel on June 19, 2018.
Ryan said she contacted the woman in July 2022 to inform her the case would be reviewed.
“She was actually quite upset. I felt really bad because I got the sense that it was opening up some wounds that she was trying to close,” Ryan told the court. “I think it was a bit overwhelming. She wasn’t expecting this.”
London police began an investigation within days of the woman’s hotel room encounter with the players in June 2018 but informed her in February 2019 there weren’t sufficient grounds to lay charges and the investigation was closed.
After reports surfaced the woman settled a lawsuit with Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and eight unnamed players, London police restarted the investigation in 2022 and pressed charges in 2023.
Carter Hart, 26, Michael McLeod, 27, Alex Formenton, 25, Dillon Dube, 26, and Cal Foote, 26, were charged with sexual assault. McLeod also was charged with being a party to a sexual assault.
The accused, all members of the Canadian world junior championship team who were in London for a gala and golf tournament to celebrate their gold medal win, pleaded not guilty.
The woman, now 27, testified she met McLeod at Jack’s bar on Richmond Row while out with co-workers and the two returned to his hotel room at the Delta, where they had consensual sex. Then the woman said up to 10 of McLeod’s teammates entered the room and she was forced into unwanted sexual activities with some players.
The five accused have countered that the woman was the sexual aggressor who wanted McLeod to invite his teammates in for “a wild night.” They claim she taunted and begged the players for sex, and consented to all sexual activity.
Ryan testified she didn’t try to contact the woman’s coworkers who met her at Jack’s. Ryan said the coworkers weren’t aware of the activities involving the woman and the players at the hotel room and the woman didn’t want them to know she was the complainant in the high-profile case.
“I was just trying to respect that as much as I could,” Ryan said of protecting the woman’s privacy.
“It was in the news and whatnot. And I knew it would only get bigger,” she said of the case.
Ryan confirmed she asked the woman for the statement she provided to Hockey Canada as part of the organization’s internal investigation.
“It was helpful but it didn’t change anything,” Ryan said of the statement.
Ryan agreed under questioning that she assumed the woman had written the statement, but the court earlier heard her civil lawyers drafted the document.
Retired detective Steve Newton, the officer who led the initial London police investigation, testified last week that he had “developing concerns” the woman was being pressured by family, especially her mother, to move forward with the investigation.
The veteran detective said he never had reasonable and probable grounds to believe a crime had been committed after an eight-month investigation that included reviewing video and text messages and interviewing players.
Only one of five accused, Carter Hart, testified in his defence at the trial.
Lawyers for Dube and Foote told the court they weren’t calling any evidence Monday.
“We’ve come to the end of evidence,” Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said.
Court was adjourned until Monday, June 9 when the defence teams will begin making their closing arguments.
The trial began that began April 22 and was expected to last eight weeks has had its share of unexpected twists.
Just four days in, Carroccia declared a mistrial and ordered a new jury be selected.
No reason was given at the time, but the court was later told one juror alleged a defence lawyer spoke to them while they were waiting in a line.
The juror told another juror about the alleged interaction, who then spread the details around to other members of the jury. The defence lawyer denied there was an interaction.
A new jury was selected and the trial resumed on April 28.
Another bombshell came on May 16 when Carroccia discharged the jury again, deciding to continue with a judge-alone trial. It was later revealed one juror wrote a letter to the judge complaining that they, along with fellow jurors, felt Formenton’s two lawyers were making fun of them.
The juror alleged Formenton’s counsel whispered to each other when the jury entered the courtroom each day. The complaint alleged the two laughed with each other as if they were discussing the appearance of the jurors. Both lawyers denied the allegations against them.
