EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains details that may be graphic. Reader discretion is advised.
A woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team in June 2018 wanted a “wild night,” one of the players’ defence lawyers suggests.
David Humphrey, who is representing Michael McLeod, suggested during cross-examination Tuesday the woman, who is appearing virtually and whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, wanted to keep the night going after having consensual sex with him in his London, Ont., hotel room.
Humphrey suggested the woman, who was 20 at the time, discussed having some of his friends come to the room “to have some fun.”
“I’m going to suggest that Mr. McLeod asked you if you were serious and if that’s what you really wanted and that you said yes, it was,” Humphrey said to the complainant, who is now 27.
“I don’t recall having any conversation about this, and then just feeling really surprised when people did walk in,” she replied, adding in response to a similar question it didn’t sound like something she said or would ever say.
Cross-examination for the woman, known as E.M. in court documents, is now underway after she wrapped up her testimony on Monday, in which she offered graphic details of the night she met McLeod and his teammates. Lawyers for the other players will also have the chance to cross-examine the complainant.
McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. The charges stem from what Crown prosecutors allege was non-consensual group sex in McLeod’s hotel room.
The complainant began her testimony Friday and recounted the moment she met McLeod and his teammates at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018. Court has heard many members of the team were in town at the time for a gala celebrating their gold-medal win earlier that year.
The complainant said in her testimony that she was at the bar with her friends and, at one point, was closely dancing with McLeod and other teammates. She described herself as drunk, and alleged the men would move her hand to touch their crotch area, adding she was “awkwardly going along with it, feeling it was a bit much.”
Complainant was attracted to McLeod because he was ‘loaded’: Humphrey
Humphrey questioned the complainant Tuesday about her drinking that night, and suggested she was attracted to McLeod because he was introduced by another man as being “loaded” and as an “elite player.”
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The complainant said she assumed at some point they were hockey players, but didn’t know what level they played. She had a hard time recalling when exactly she learned who they were.
Humphrey also questioned the complainant about dancing at the bar, and showed the court security video and screenshots of those videos of the complainant and the players on the dance floor. He suggested she liked the attention from the group, to which she replied it was “confusing” for her as she wasn’t used to that level of attention.
“I did feel a little odd,” the complainant told Humphrey.
“I wouldn’t say I was fully comfortable, but I just went along with it.”
When they were dancing, Humphrey questioned whether she was made to touch the players’ crotches on the dance floor, or whether she did on her own. He played the video and showed those images that appear to show the complainant dancing between McLeod and Brett Howden, another team member who isn’t facing charges.
While dancing, the complainant appears to touch McLeod’s crotch with her hand and agreed with Humphrey when he suggested she did it on her own.
She added it didn’t surprise her given how the night was going because at other points in the night, she alleged they would her move her hand to touch their crotches.
Humphrey suggested the woman was “skewing” her story, which she denied.
Complainant ‘not sure how to react’
After they had consensual sex in his room at the Delta hotel, prosecutor Heather Donkers alleged in her opening remarks that McLeod started inviting other people into his room. It was then, in the early morning hours of June 19, that several sexual acts took place without the woman’s voluntary consent, the prosecution alleges.
The complainant said Monday that two men arrived shortly after she had sex with McLeod and that more arrived in the room soon after while she was in the bathroom. She said the men wanted her to lie down on a bedsheet on the floor of the room.
The complainant testified she gave oral sex to three men on the floor of the room, which she alleged was not consensual. She also said she had vaginal and oral sex with another man in the bathroom, which she alleged was also not consensual. The woman said she cried and at various points in the night, tried to leave but each time, someone would convince her to stay, she alleged.
She also alleged the men made penetrative sexual comments involving golf clubs that were in the room.
“It seemed like a joke to them, it was funny I was feeling intimidated, and not sure how to react,” the complainant added.
She testified she was uncomfortable and afraid, a point echoed by Donkers during opening remarks when she said the woman was drunk and uncomfortable and tried to get through the night by doing what she thought the men wanted. The Crown is alleging as many as 10 people were present at some point.
The complainant was recorded on multiple videos in the room that were shown in court last week, saying in one of them, “It was all consensual.” Donkers has said the Crown plans to argue those videos, allegedly taken by McLeod, are not evidence that the complainant did, in fact, consent.
Court was shown Monday text messages to the complainant from McLeod the day after the alleged incident. In it, he asks if she had gone to police. At this point, her mother already contacted police, she testified.
“This needs to be done now before this goes any further,” McLeod said, insisting she drop a police investigation.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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