Judge clears five Canadian hockey players in sexual assault case

Five members of the 2018 Team Canada World Juniors ice hockey team have been acquitted in a sexual assault case after a judge in Ontario said prosecutors could not meet the onus of proof.

Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Callan Foote all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in an encounter that took place in a London, Ontario, hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.

The players, now between the ages of 25 and 27, were in London at the time for a gala and golf tournament marking their World Juniors championship earlier that year.

Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said she did not find the complainant’s testimony credible.

The victim met the players at a bar in downtown London after a Hockey Canada event June 18, 2018. The victim was later invited to a hotel room where she was allegedly sexually assaulted. 

The woman testified in May that she was naked, drunk and scared when four of the men showed up unexpectedly in her room at the Delta Hotel London Armouries and felt the only “safe” option was to do what they wanted. Prosecutors argued the players did what they wanted without taking steps to ensure she was voluntarily consenting to sexual acts.

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“I made the choice to dance with them and drink at the bar. I did not make the choice to have them do what they did back at the hotel,” she testified.

Defense attorneys cross-examined her for days and suggested she actively participated in or initiated sexual activity because she wanted a “wild night.” Two short videos of the complainant taken by McLeod the night of the encounter were played in court. In one, the woman says it was “all consensual,” though she told the court that wasn’t how she truly felt.

All the players went on indefinite leave, and none is on an NHL roster or has an active contract with a team in the league.

The NHL launched its own investigation in 2022. Officials pledged to release the findings, though Commissioner Gary Bettman said in February that would depend on what the league can say given legal proceedings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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