All 5 Players Found Not Guilty in Hockey Canada Sex Assault Trial

An Ontario judge has found all five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team not guilty of sexual assault, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to prove any of the charges.

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote have been exonerated of sexually assaulting a woman in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018, after Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia expressed doubts about the Crown’s case.

Carroccia said the complainant, who has been referred to as E.M. throughout the proceedings to safeguard her identity, failed to deliver credible testimony during the trial. That, the judge said, resulted in the Crown’s inability to substantiate any of the charges.

The judge said the onus was on the Crown to prove that consent was not given by the complainant to reach a guilty verdict.

“Having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me,” Carroccia said.

She described reasonable doubt as a “cornerstone” of Canada’s legal system, saying that her ruling cannot be based on “sympathy or prejudice.”

“There is a high criminal standard of proof, which applies to the Crown’s case against each of the accused,” she said.

“The Crown is not required to prove the criminal charge to an absolute certainty, but the court must be satisfied on the basis of all of the evidence of the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.”

All five players were accused of varying sexual assaults against E.M.

McLeod, whom prosecutors claimed was the “ringleader,” was also charged with being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

The judge issued a not guilty verdict for all five players on all charges.

Judicial Analysis

The judge said the complainant’s testimony was filled with inconsistencies. Although some inconsistencies do not necessarily mean a witness is lying, it is a factor worth considering, she said. 

She referred to a few responses E.M. gave while under examination and during cross-examination, which she called a cause for concern, including misrepresenting minor things like her weight.

The judge also noted that E.M. talked about telling “‘her truth’” rather than “‘the truth,’” which creates ambiguity regarding whether she was referring to the objective truth.

Carroccia also pointed to gaps in E.M.’s memory and noted that the complainant had acknowledged filling those gaps with assumptions.

The justice also expressed concern regarding E.M. frequently beginning her responses with, “I feel that …” because it suggests an “uncertain memory.”

Video evidence also refuted some of the woman’s testimony, the judge said, noting that E.M. had said she was extremely drunk when she arrived at the hotel. Footage showed, however, that she exited the cab, checked her phone, and walked up the stairs without any problem.

The judge also referenced two videos seen by the court, referring to them as “consent videos,” in which E.M. said she was “OK with this.”

“While speaking on the video, E.M. does not display any signs of intoxication. She has no difficulty speaking,” Carroccia noted. “She is not slurring her words and speaks clearly and coherently.”

Carroccia also outlined discrepancies between a statement E.M. gave to Hockey Canada in 2022 and her court testimony.

In one instance pointed out by the judge, E.M. originally claimed to have fallen in front of McLeod, but video showed this was not true. She then told the court she made a mistake about which time she was referring to.  

Courtroom Accusations 

The players, who are now aged 25 to 27, were in London on June 18 for a gala and a golf tournament commemorating their championship success after defeating Sweden to win gold earlier that year.

The court heard E.M. met McLeod at a downtown bar earlier that night and later had sex with him in his hotel room.

That encounter was not included in the trial proceedings. The charges are connected to events that transpired after multiple other players entered the room. 

The Crown contended that McLeod had devised a “campaign” to bring his friends into the room to engage in sexual acts with the woman without her consent or knowledge and said the players did not take sufficient measures to confirm her consent.

The defence said the woman was a willing participant and, at times, urged the men to continue, but later fabricated a false narrative because she later regretted the choices she made that night.

They maintained that she entered the courtroom with an agenda and exaggerated her intoxication that evening to bolster her narrative and account for the discrepancies within it.

The Crown alleged a phone group chat set up by the players in the days after June 18 and 19 was an attempt to “concoct a narrative” about what happened that night, but Carroccia disagreed.

“The Crown suggests that the players concocted the evidence. I disagree with this characterization,” she said. “They were recounting their recollections.”

E.M. testified that she was naked and drunk when men she didn’t know showed up in McLeod’s room. The complainant was one of several witnesses who testified remotely via CCTV from another room in the courthouse.

The men seemed to be laughing at her while they talked about the sexual acts they wanted her to carry out, she said during more than a week of testimony. She said she felt her mind “shut down” and her body operating on “autopilot.”

The judge, in her summary of the evidence, noted two “consent videos” that McLeod told police he had recorded of E.M. He told police during the interview that he asked E.M. “‘at least five times’” if she was OK.

McLeod told police he recorded the videos to have evidence of her consent regarding all that transpired that evening. He further stated to the authorities that E.M. was the one initiating the sexual interactions, and said he was surprised by her sexually assertive demeanour.

The judge also noted that the Crown contends the victim was coerced into recording the “consent videos.”

Crown witnesses and fellow teammates Brett Howden and Tyler Steenbergen told the court E.M. asked the group if anyone would have sex with her, a point that the judge referenced in her ruling.

She noted that one of the players testified that the men in the room appeared shocked after the offer of sex. The offer was corroborated by Hart in his testimony, the sole accused player who chose to take the stand.

When this was brought up in cross-examination, the woman said she did not remember making those remarks, but if she did, it was because she was under the influence of alcohol and had assumed the identity of a “porn star” as a way to cope.

E.M. also showed a lack of consistency concerning her thoughts on what would transpire after the consensual sex with McLeod in the Delta hotel room, the judge said. At first, she expressed that she would be spending the night. Later, during cross-examination, she said she believed she would be going home.

The complainant refuted a suggestion from the defence that she was waiting for the other men to arrive, saying it didn’t sound like something she would say or do, but Carroccia said behaviour can change when drinking alcohol.

The trial started in late April and was originally presented to a jury, however, Carroccia discharged the jury panel on two occasions. Ultimately, the trial was converted to a judge-alone format to prevent the need to restart the proceedings a second time.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.