All five former junior hockey players acquitted in high-profile sexual assault trial

Five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team have been found not guilty of sexual assault in an encounter with a woman at a London, Ont., hotel room seven years ago. 

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote walked out of the London courtroom surrounded by their family members after the acquittals Thursday afternoon. 

McLeod has also been acquitted of a separate charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. 

Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia delivered her ruling to a packed courtroom, capping off a complex trial that captured national attention this spring. 

Carroccia began by saying that she did not find the complainant's testimony to be "either credible or reliable."

"Considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts," she said. 

Over the next several hours, the judge recapped the evidence in the case and detailed her reasons for finding the men not guilty. She pointed to what she said were multiple inconsistencies between the complainant's testimony, the statements she made to police and a civil claim against Hockey Canada that was settled before the players were criminally charged. 

The case centred on an encounter that took place in the early hours of June 19, 2018, as many members of that year’s national junior team were in town for a series of events celebrating their gold-medal performance. 

Court heard the complainant had sex with McLeod, who she had met at a downtown bar earlier that night, in his hotel room — an encounter that was not part of the trial. 

The charges related to what happened after several other players came into the room, with consent a central issue in the case. 

Prosecutors alleged McLeod orchestrated a "campaign" to bring his friends into the room to engage in sexual acts with the woman without her knowledge or consent — a charge the judge rejected in her ruling.

The woman did not voluntarily consent to the sexual acts that took place in the room, the Crown argued, and the players did not take reasonable steps to confirm that she did despite circumstances that would call for additional caution.

The defence argued the woman actively participated in the sexual activity and was egging the men on at times, but later made up a false narrative to absolve herself of responsibility. They argued she came to court with an agenda and exaggerated her level of drunkenness that night to support her account and explain inconsistencies in it.

McLeod, Hart and Dube were accused of getting oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube was also accused of slapping her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.

Formenton was alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant in the bathroom without her consent, and Foote was accused of doing the splits over her face and “grazing” his genitals on it without her consent.

Court heard McLeod sent a text to a team group chat shortly after 2 a.m. asking if anyone wanted a “three-way” and listing his room number. Hart replied he was “in,” according to screenshots shown at trial.

He also texted another teammate, Taylor Raddysh, telling him to come to the room if he wanted a “gummer,” which Raddysh testified meant oral sex. McLeod made a similar comment to Boris Katchouk, another player who briefly stopped by his room, court heard.

McLeod did not mention any of these interactions to police in a 2018 interview, instead saying he had told "a few guys" that he was ordering food and had a girl in his room, and didn’t know "how guys kept showing up."

The woman was naked and drunk when men she didn’t know started coming into the room, she told the court during more than a week of testimony.

The men seemed to be laughing at her as they discussed sexual acts they wanted her to perform, she said, and she felt her mind “shut down” as her body moved on "autopilot."

Two teammates who were called as Crown witnesses, Brett Howden and Tyler Steenbergen, testified the woman asked the group if anyone would have sex with her, as did Hart, the only accused player to take the stand in his own defence.

When that was put to her in cross-examination, the woman said she didn't remember saying such things, but that if she did, it was because she was drunk and had taken on the persona of a “porn star” as a coping mechanism.

Carroccia said in her ruling that several people had testified that the woman was the one who was initiating or encouraging sexual activity in the room and that the complainant's testimony about her state of mind was not credible.

"In my view, the complainant exaggerated her intoxication," she said.

Carroccia also said the woman did not appear to be intoxicated in two short videos recorded that night, in which she said she was "OK" with what was happening and that "it was all consensual."

The trial began in late April and was initially heard by a jury, but Carroccia twice discharged the panel and eventually the trial was switched to a judge alone to avoid having to start over a second time.

Nine witnesses testified, most of them remotely – including the complainant, who testified via CCTV from another room in the courthouse.

Protesters gathered the London courthouse on Thursday, holding signs that signalled support for the complainant. Others gathered in support of the hockey players.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne