Defence rests in Hockey Canada trial

Defence lawyers representing the five former world junior hockey players who are on trial for sexual assault in London, Ont., have rested their case.

Now that the Crown and defence teams have finished calling evidence, the high-profile trial moves to its final stages with closing arguments, which are scheduled to begin next Monday and expected to last for three days.

The five defence teams representing Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote made the announcement in court on Monday.

Each of the former world junior players has been charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged attack on a woman, who is known publicly as E.M., at the Delta Armouries hotel on June 19, 2018, after a Hockey Canada gala. Mr. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault. The men have pleaded not guilty.

Last Thursday, the Crown rested its case and Mr. Hart testified in his own defence, the first time the court had heard directly from one of the accused men in the high-profile case. Mr. Hart was the only accused player to take the stand.

What the jury didn’t hear at the Hockey Canada sex-assault trial

Lawyers for Mr. McLeod and Mr. Formenton told the court the players would not testify because interviews they gave to London Police in 2018 had already been entered into evidence. Mr. Dubé and Mr. Foote declined to testify.

Before the defence rested its case on Monday, Mr. Formenton’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, called London Police Det. Lyndsey Ryan, whose criminal investigation led the players to be charged.

Court has heard that a different London Police detective, who is now retired, investigated the alleged sexual assault in 2018 but closed the file in February, 2019, without charges.

On Monday, Det. Ryan testified that she was asked to review the initial police investigation into the alleged assault in July, 2022. She said she went to the complainant’s house to tell her that the case was under review and that it appeared E.M. was upset by this news. Det. Ryan said she felt like she was “opening up a wound,” and that she had the impression this was a chapter that E.M. had hoped was closed.

Mr. Hart’s lawyer, Riaz Sayani, asked Ryan about the discrepancies between a statement E.M. gave to police in 2018 and a statement that her lawyer submitted to Hockey Canada in 2022. Det. Ryan said that when E.M. spoke to police in 2018, it appeared she was blaming herself for the alleged incident, but by 2022, E.M.’s perspective had evolved and she now understood that acquiescing does not necessarily equate to consent, which the officer said is a common process among complainants.

Det. Ryan said she was initially given three weeks to review the case but that her investigation continued for roughly a year and a half before the players were charged.

The trial began in late April and has been plagued with disruptions, including a mistrial and the dismissal of two juries. In mid-May, Justice Maria Carroccia accepted a proposal from the defence to switch to a judge-alone trial.

It was a change that Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham reluctantly accepted in order to prevent a second mistrial; however, she expressed concern it would prejudice the prosecution’s case as much of their evidence had already been called – and called in a way that was designed for a jury, not a judge.

More to come.