NHL
LONDON, Ont. — Five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault on Thursday, ending a months-long trial that has garnered national attention since it began in April.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote were acquitted of all charges by Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia on Thursday.
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All five players had been charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged incident in June 2018 in which a woman known publicly as E.M. — her identity is protected by a publication ban — said she was sexually assaulted over the span of several hours in a London, Ont., hotel room. The players were in town for a Hockey Canada event celebrating their victory at the World Junior championships earlier that year. McLeod had also been charged with being party to the offense.
In her decision, Justice Maria Carroccia said the Crown had not proven their case, and that she did not find the evidence of the complainant “credible or reliable.”
“Having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me,” Carroccia said.
Crown attorney Meghan Cunningham said on Thursday afternoon that they will “carefully review Justice Carroccia’s decision, and as the case is still within the appeal period, we have no further comments to make about the decision at this time.”
The Crown has 30 days to appeal the decision, should they choose.
As the judge spoke early in the afternoon — before giving her official verdict but after saying the Crown had failed to prove its case — members of the players’ families became emotional in the courtroom.
During a brief recess, in the court’s hallway, their relief was on display. Dubé walked out of the courtroom with a smile on his face before heading for another set of doors. McLeod, the only defendant who faced two charges of sexual assault, tearfully embraced his family near the metal detectors.
After the verdicts were rendered, McLeod was the first of the defendants to leave the courtroom. “Last time, Mikey,” a man in his inner circle said as they waited for the elevator.
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“Woo! Let’s get the hell out of here,” said another.
Carroccia’s decision came nearly six weeks after the highly publicized trial concluded, and seven years after the alleged assault was first reported to London police. The verdict marks the end of what Carroccia called a “long and trying case” that had been plagued with a mistrial just three days into the proceedings, two jury dismissals and an abrupt transition to a judge-alone trial.
The men, four of whom had been playing in the NHL prior to their arrest, pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, they would have faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Standing outside the courthouse after the verdict, David Humphrey, McLeod’s attorney, said the public’s perception of the case was “shaped by a one-sided narrative from a civil lawsuit that went unchallenged, in large part because Hockey Canada settled the claim without first informing or consulting the players.”
“The decision was made unilaterally, and the players were only told of the lawsuit and the settlement after the fact,” he said. “Had they been consulted, they would have refused to settle, and they would have vigorously contested E.M.’s allegations.”
Megan Savard, attorney for Carter Hart, depicted the verdict as “unsurprising” and vindicating for her client. She also took aim at the Crown for pursuing a trial, which she called “distressing and unnecessary” to the detriment of Hart — the only player to take the stand — the defendants and the complainant.
“Almost every single feature of the evidence that Justice Carroccia identified today as fatal flaws for the Crown was known to prosecutors and to police from 2018. Today’s outcome was not just predictable — it was predicted,” she said.
“The Crown attorney did not have to take this case to trial.”
The case revolved around what exactly happened in the early hours of June 19, 2018 at the Delta Armories Hotel.
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E.M. and McLeod met at Jack’s, a popular bar in London, and after a night of drinking and dancing, left to have consensual sex with him at his hotel in the early-morning hours of June 19, 2018. After that sexual encounter, E.M. said that McLeod invited his teammates to his room to engage in sexual activity, without her knowledge or consent. E.M. made a complaint to police at the time, but the investigation was closed without charges in February 2019.
The allegations became public in late May 2022, when TSN reported that Hockey Canada settled a civil lawsuit with E.M.
Later that year, the Globe and Mail reported that Hockey Canada had historically used money partially drawn from registration fees to settle allegations of sexual abuse; the organizations’s CEO and board of directors subsequently resigned, and an exodus of major sponsors ensued. That year’s World Junior Championships in Edmonton were held without sponsors.
A renewed criminal investigation ended in sexual assault charges against the five players filed in January 2024.
During her testimony — which lasted nine days, including seven in cross examination — E.M. said that over the course of the night, she was pressured to perform a number of sexual acts with the players, including oral sex with McLeod, Hart and Dubé and vaginal sex with Formenton. She also said she was slapped on the buttocks and that Foote did the splits over her and grazed his genitals in her face.
The Crown argued that E.M. did not voluntarily consent to any of the specific sexual activity and that once men began arriving in the room, E.M. found herself in a “highly stressful” and “unpredictable” situation that caused her to feel fear.
In her decision, Carroccia said she found “actual consent not vitiated by fear.”
Throughout the trial, attorneys for the accused argued that E.M. was the instigator of the group sex, urging McLeod to invite his teammates back to the hotel room for a “wild night.” In her decision, Carroccia highlighted that multiple witnesses testified that E.M. was the aggressor in the room and called players “pussies” for not having sex with her.
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During cross examination, E.M. said that didn’t “sound like how I would usually speak.”
Carroccia also said there were “troubling aspects” to the manner in which E.M. gave evidence. She specifically referenced a probe made by Daniel Brown, Alex Formenton’s attorney, into E.M.’s weight.
E.M. testified she was 120 pounds the night of the incident, but Brown said according to her medical records she weighed 138 pounds. He said she had access to those medical records and questioned why she didn’t tell the jury her actual weight.
E.M. said she told the court what she had estimated at the time, not what was in the medical records.
“So you just said what you said at the time,” Brown said during cross examination in May. “Rather than telling us the truth.”
Carroccia said E.M. filled memory gaps “with assumptions.” The judge said E.M. did not recall any conversation with McLeod during their consensual sex, the “consent videos” McLeod took, or any conversations she might have had with the men upon whom she was performing oral sex.
“She would say ‘I feel that I …” and she would speculate as opposed to remembering or knowing the answer to the question,” Carroccia said in her decision. “This reflects an uncertainty of memory.”
Karen Bellehumeur, E.M.’s lawyer, said her client was “very disappointed” with the verdict and with Carroccia’s assessment.
“She’s really never experienced not being believed like this before,” Bellehumeur said.
“She knew there was no guarantee for guilty verdicts, and that even if she decided not to testify, that decision would have been accepted, but she felt that it was important to see the process through to the end, even if it meant opening (herself) up to intense scrutiny and unjustified criticism.”
Bellehumeur also noted that the five men “have been declared not innocent, but simply not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” and said that the outcome was emblematic of perceived issues, both with the Canadian justice system and power structures at large.
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“The justice system continues to fall short on identifying and eradicating stereotypes,” she said. “It struggles to understand complicated social interactions, such as victim responses to unpredictable, threatening situations such as that described by E.M.
“Change is also necessary outside the justice system. To those in institutional leadership roles: This case should be a wake-up call that more is needed from you to prevent sexual violence. The impact you can have on this issue cannot be understated.”
At a few points, Bellehumeur thanked E.M.’s supporters, dozens of whom began the day outside the courthouse chanting, toting supportive signs and jeering the defendants as they entered the courthouse. Some of those people — many of whom identified themselves survivors of sexual violence — were expected to return on Thursday evening.
As Bellehumeur and other attorneys took turns speaking, though, the protestor presence had dwindled to single digits. One held a sign reading. “Thank you (E.M.) for your courage.”
— The Athletic’s Dan Robson contributed reporting remotely from Toronto.
(Courtroom sketch of Justice Maria Carroccia delivering her verdicts Thursday in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, by Alexandra Newbould / The Canadian Press via AP)
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