World junior trial will generate ‘big conversations’ for years as closing submissions begin
Global News
The high-profile sexual assault trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team will generate 'big conversations' for years to come, one advocate says.
The high-profile sexual assault trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team will generate “big conversations” for years to come, one advocate says, as closing submissions are set to begin.
The London, Ont., trial, which has seen two juries dismissed since it began in late April, has been proceeding by judge alone and was adjourned last Monday after defence lawyers rested their cases.
Closing submissions will begin Monday, and Crown prosecutors said they’d need a day for it. Defence lawyers said they would collaborate to avoid repetition during their submissions.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex with a 20-year-old woman in McLeod’s London hotel room in June 2018.
McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
Court has heard that the team was in London for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and the complainant, known as E.M. in court documents, was out with friends when they met at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018.
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.
It was then that the Crown alleges several sexual acts took place without E.M.’s consent.
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