Hockey players' trial hears interviews two accused gave to police in 2018

The sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team is hearing interviews two of the accused gave to police months after the encounter with the complainant.

Alex Formenton and Dillon Dube spoke with Det. Steve Newton, the lead investigator in the case at the time, in November and December 2018, respectively. Formenton's interview was in person and captured on video, while Dube's was on the phone and recorded.

In his interview, Formenton said he "volunteered" to have sex with the complainant after she asked him and his teammates if anyone would "do anything" with her.

He said many of the guys in the London, Ont., hotel room "didn’t feel comfortable" getting naked and having intercourse in front of the group, and several of them had girlfriends at the time.

Formenton said he also found it "very awkward and weird" to do it in front of the others, so he followed the woman into the bathroom and they had sex.

Formenton, Dube, Michael McLeod, Carter Hart and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, and McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

The charges stem from an encounter that took place in a hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.

Prosecutors allege McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube slapped her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.

Foote is accused of doing the splits over the woman's face and grazing his genitals on it without her consent. Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant inside the bathroom without her consent.

Many members of the 2018 national world junior team were in town for a few days in June of that year for a series of events celebrating their championship win.

Several of the players went out afterward to Jack's bar, where the complainant was drinking with co-workers, court has heard. The woman, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, left with McLeod to go to his hotel room, where they had sex.

The initial encounter alone with McLeod is not part of the trial, which instead focuses on what happened after several other men came into the room.

The woman has testified she was naked, drunk and afraid when men she didn't know suddenly started coming into the room. She went on "autopilot" as a coping mechanism as she engaged in sexual acts, she said.

The defence suggests she was initiating the sexual activity and at times taunting the players to engage in sexual acts with her.

Formenton told Newton he didn't go to Jack's bar because he was too young to get in. He was drinking at Joe Kool's when he received a text from McLeod, his roommate at the hotel, around 2 a.m., saying "there’s a girl in the hotel room that wants to have a threesome."

Formenton replied that he was coming back to the hotel, he told police, and McLeod responded that they were getting food and the woman would "probably be there for a while."

In his interview, Dube said he received a text he believed was from another teammate, Jake Bean, about someone ordering pizza, but there was no mention of a girl being in the room. He said he didn't look at his phone after that.

Court has seen a text McLeod sent to a team group chat shortly after 2 a.m. that night, asking if anyone wanted to be in a "three-way" and listing his room number. Hart replied, "I'm in."

Newton told the court Wednesday he never became aware of that text in the course of his investigation.

On Tuesday, court watched a video of McLeod's interview with Newton, which took place a week before Formenton's.

He did not mention either text, even when asked whether he had sent any messages that would bring more players to the room.

"I don’t know how guys kept showing up," McLeod said. "I just told the guys I was getting food and there’s a girl over there, that’s all I said to a few guys," he said.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne