The high-profile sexual assault trial of five former Canadian world junior hockey players has wrapped up.
Arguments in the eight-week-long trial finished Friday after closing submissions were presented to Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia inside a London, Ont., courtroom this week.
Defence lawyers for Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote argued the key witness in the case – a 27-year-old woman known as E.M. in court documents — “created a lie” out of regret and embarrassment from the June 2018 night at the heart of the trial.
Meanwhile, the Crown urged the judge to convict the men, with prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham arguing the men were “reckless” for engaging in group sex with E.M. and not seeking her affirmative consent.
All five men pleaded not guilty to sexual assault when the trial began on April 22; McLeod also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The charges stem from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex with a then-20-year-old E.M. in McLeod’s London hotel room.
Court has heard that the team was in London for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and that the complainant was out with friends when they met at a downtown bar on June 18.
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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. Court has heard that E.M., who testified she was drunk and not of clear mind, 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.
The woman, whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, was subject to intense cross-examination during her nine days on the stand.
Defence lawyers have 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, and accused her of having a “clear agenda” at the trial.
E.M. has pushed back against those claims and at points outright rejected them, saying she was coaxed into staying in the room and was disrespected and taken advantage of by the group, who she said “could see I was out of my mind.”
Only Hart would testify at the trial, while the other players’ lawyers cited evidence and police interviews that were already played in court as part of the reasons why their clients were opting not to testify.
Two juries were dismissed in the case, but it was decided Carroccia would preside over the case alone.
Court will resume on July 24, when Carroccia will deliver her ruling.
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