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LONDON — Holding a white towel against her body, a young woman smiles and looks into the camera.
“It was all consensual,” she says before asking if she’s being filmed.
“You are so paranoid … I enjoyed it,” she adds. “I am so sober that’s why I can’t do this right now.”
The short video, taken at the Delta hotel in London, Ont., at 4:26 a.m. on June 19, 2018, was one of a series of clips shown in quick succession Wednesday at the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.
The five accused, who were on Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, have all 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.
In another video, taken about an hour earlier, someone asks the woman twice if she is “OK with this.” Both times, she agrees.
Prosecutors had referred to the videos, which they said were taken by McLeod, in their opening submissions to the jury on Monday.
At the time, prosecutor Heather Donkers urged jurors to listen carefully to the complainant’s testimony later in the trial regarding “what was happening before and during the recording of these videos.”
Donkers added the Crown plans to argue the videos are not evidence that the complainant did, in fact, consent.
The Crown alleges the woman, who cannot be identified under a standard publication ban, felt she had no choice but to go along when a group of men she didn’t know started asking her to do things inside the hotel room. They allege she was drunk, uncomfortable and just trying to get through the night.
Jurors were also shown Wednesday a screenshot of what the Crown alleges is a group chat between members of the world junior team around 2:10 a.m. that day. In it, prosecutors allege, McLeod asks if anyone wants to be in a “three-way,” then follows up with his hotel room number and Hart replies, “I’m in.”
Another member of the 2018 team, Taylor Raddysh, testified Wednesday that he was the one who took the screenshot but didn’t remember when the message came in or when he first saw it.
Raddysh, who now plays in the NHL for the Washington Capitals, was also asked about another series of screenshots showing what he said were text messages between him and McLeod.
In one, dated June 19, 2018 at 2:15 a.m., McLeod allegedly told Raddysh to come to his room if he wanted a “gummer.” Raddysh told the court he understood “gummer” to mean “oral sex.” He did not appear to reply to the message.
Another screenshot dated June 26, 1:57 p.m. included two messages from Raddysh to McLeod. “Bully just called me,” one said, followed by, “Said there’s an investigation.”
Raddysh told the court he was referring to a Hockey Canada staff member and that he understood the investigation to relate to “that night in London.”
Testifying remotely from Arlington, Va., Raddysh said he recalled very little from that night, even after reviewing transcripts from interviews he had with police in 2022 and lawyers in 2018.
There had been a ring ceremony on June 18 to mark the team’s gold-medal win at that year’s championship, followed by a dinner, he said.
Raddysh said he didn’t have any memory of going to a bar with some of his teammates after the event, but did remember having a video call with his then-girlfriend once back in his hotel room, which he said was next to McLeod’s.
He said he didn’t have a “full recollection” of going to McLeod’s room or how that came about, but remembered seeing McLeod in the room with another teammate, Boris Katchouk, and a woman. Raddysh said he was “pretty sure” the woman was on the bed, but he couldn’t remember how she was positioned or whether she was wearing clothes.
“Sitting here today, I don’t remember,” he said. Nor could he remember how long he stayed in the room, or why he left, he said.
Prosecutors allege the complainant went with McLeod to his hotel room after they met at a downtown bar earlier in the night. Court has heard several members of the team were there after attending a Hockey Canada gala. The Crown alleges the complainant had about eight drinks while out with a friend.
At the hotel, McLeod and the complainant had sex — an encounter that is not part of the trial, court heard.
Afterward, McLeod invited others into the room, with as many as 10 present at some point, the Crown alleges. In the hours that followed, a number of sexual acts took place without the woman’s voluntary consent, the prosecution alleges.
CAUTION: The following paragraphs contain graphic content some readers may find disturbing.
The Crown alleges McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained oral sex from the complainant without her consent at some point during the night, and that Dube slapped the complainant’s buttocks without her consent while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.
Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant in the bathroom without her consent. Foote allegedly did the splits over the complainant’s face while she lay on the ground, grazing his genitals over her face, without her consent.
The Crown alleges McLeod vaginally penetrated the complainant again at the end of the night, without her consent. It’s also alleged he assisted and encouraged his teammates to engage in sexual acts with the complainant knowing she had not consented.
Also on Wednesday, court watched security video from the lobby of the hotel and from the bar where some of the players and the complainant were earlier that evening.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2025.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
