EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains details that may be graphic. Reader discretion is advised.
The female complainant in the high-profile world junior sexual assault trial rejected Tuesday the idea she has a “clear agenda” as defence questioning of her accusations continued.
Julianna Greenspan, lawyer for Callen Foote, began questioning the 27-year-old woman, whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, inside a London, Ont., courtroom Tuesday.
E.M., as she’s known in court documents, has been under cross-examination for more than a week; the complainant began testifying on May 2, and defence questioning started late last Monday.
Cross-examination of E.M., who has been appearing virtually in court, has been at times tense as lawyers for Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton and Dillon Dube questioned her recollection of the events on June 18 and 19, 2018.
All five men have pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex in McLeod’s room at the Delta hotel in London. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
Court has heard the team was in town for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and E.M. was out with friends when they met at a downtown bar on June 18. After being with McLeod and his teammates at the bar, E.M. would go on to have consensual sex with McLeod in his room in the early morning hours of June 19.
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Court has heard E.M. was in the washroom after she had sex with McLeod and came out to a group of men in the room allegedly invited for a “3 way” by McLeod in a group chat.
E.M., who was 20 at the time, said she was drunk and not of clear mind the night of the alleged incident.
Greenspan began her cross-examination Tuesday by questioning E.M. over her use of “man” and “men” when describing the accused during the trial. Greenspan took issue with her initial statement to London police in 2018, when E.M. described the accused using “boy” and “boys.”
The complainant said at the time she was simply using language she was comfortable with, but the fact was their ages made them men.
“I’m going to put this suggestion to you, ma’am: Having gone through all of the replete references of ‘boy’ and not one single use of man, in complete opposite of what you’ve done at this trial, is that the reason why you’ve carefully changed your language is because you have come into this trial with a clear agenda – isn’t that right?” Greenspan asked.
“No, absolutely not. I’m older. I understand more,” E.M. replied.
“They were men.”
Greenspan also grilled E.M. over her ties to hockey, and brought up how her family members all played hockey. She suggested she must’ve known about the team’s gold-medal win that year.
The complainant reiterated what she said earlier in the trial that hockey wasn’t something she was interested in or followed closely.
Greenspan also questioned E.M. about video footage of the night at the bar that shows E.M. engaging in conversation at various points with her friends and a bouncer she knew from high school. Greenspan said it appeared the complainant was in an “extremely good mood” when she spoke with her bouncer friend, who E.M. first mentioned his existence in a letter to police this past March.
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“I’m going to suggest this is why you completely and utterly failed to tell the police offer about the bouncer friend, who you had multiple interactions with … cause he knew about your conversations. Do you accept that or do you not?” Greenspan asked.
“No, I don’t accept that,” E.M. replied.
Throughout the marathon cross-examination, defence lawyers have also suggested E.M. wasn’t as drunk as she has testified she was, wanted a “wild night” with the players and was “egging” them on to have sex with her.
E.M. has both pushed back against those claims, and at points outright rejected them, saying she was coaxed into staying in the room, was disrespected and was taken advantage of by the group who she said “could see I was out of my mind.”
— with files from Sean O’Shea and The Canadian Press
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