Defence in hockey players’ trial suggests complainant wanted ‘wild night’ with group

Defence lawyers for one of five hockey players accused of sexual assault suggested Tuesday the complainant asked him to call other players into a hotel room in June 2018 and later urged them to have sex with her.

David Humphrey, who represents Michael McLeod, suggested during cross-examination that the woman wanted to keep the night going after having sex with McLeod and told him to have some of his friends come to the London, Ont., hotel room “to have some fun” because she wanted a “wild night.”

“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.

“I don’t recall having any conversation about this, and then just feeling really surprised when people did walk in,” the woman, now 27, replied.

The woman, who cannot be identified under a standard publication ban, told the court Monday she was naked and scared when men started coming into the room. She described feeling “numb” and on “autopilot,” and like she had to go along with what the men in the room wanted her to do.

McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote 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.

The five accused were all part of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team. Court has heard many of the team’s members were in London, Ont., for a few days in June 2018 to attend events marking their championship win.

CAUTION: The following paragraphs contain graphic content some readers may find disturbing.

On Tuesday, Humphrey suggested the woman was “flirtatious” with some of the men who came into the room after her sexual encounter with McLeod. At one point, she asked them if anyone would have sex with her, he suggested.

“Do you recall saying anything like, ‘Come on, you’ve got a girl here, someone have sex with me. You guys are pussies.’ Do you recall saying anything like that?” Humphrey asked.

“I don’t, that doesn’t even really sound like how I would usually speak,” the woman responded.

She recalled some of the men calling her “crazy,” and said that given her level of intoxication, it was possible she’d said something like that but she had no memory of it.

“I just know that’s not how I would usually be acting and if they could see that I was that out of my mind and acting that crazy then I feel like they just should have known better.”

McLeod, Hart and Dube are accused of obtaining oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube is also accused of slapping her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.

Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant without her consent inside the bathroom. Foote is alleged to have done the splits over her face and grazed his genitals on it without her consent.

The Crown alleges McLeod also vaginally penetrated her without her consent at the end of the night.

Prosecutors allege the players did what they wanted to the complainant without taking steps to ensure she was voluntarily consenting to those sexual acts.

At another point in his cross-examination on Tuesday, Humphrey suggested McLeod had repeatedly checked in with the woman throughout the night to make sure she was OK with what was happening.

The woman said she recalled him asking several times near the end of the night, particularly around the time he took a cellphone video of her saying it was “all consensual.” It may have happened more than that, she said, but she didn’t recall him asking “consistently throughout the night.”

The woman agreed she said she was fine when he asked. “What else was I supposed to be saying at that point?” she said. “I had already been crying, I had already been trying to leave. That wasn’t working.”

Humphrey suggested the woman had several opportunities to leave that night and that no one was physically preventing her from doing so.

The woman agreed no one physically stopped her but said she felt she couldn’t leave.

The defence lawyer also pressed the woman on how she described some elements of that night in statements to police in 2018.

He noted she didn’t mention feeling scared or intimidated until 2022, when she filed a statement of claim in a civil suit against Hockey Canada and eight unnamed players. In speaking to police, he said, she described feeling frustrated and upset.

The woman said she hadn’t had time to process her feelings before speaking to police, adding it took a long time to come to terms with what she’d experienced.

“I was really just trying to bottle this up. I didn’t want to admit it was as horrible as it was. I didn’t want to think about it,” she said.

Court has heard the complainant met McLeod at a downtown bar where some of the players had gone after a ring ceremony and gala on June 18.

The complainant was there with coworkers and told the court she’d had at least eight shots and two other drinks while at the bar, as well as two coolers at home.

She testified last week that someone introduced her to McLeod, who was there with friends she learned were connected through hockey. On the dancefloor, she said, the group crowded around her and made her uncomfortable, and some moved her hands to touch their crotch area, she said.

She and McLeod kissed a couple times at the bar and ended up going together to the Delta hotel, where he and his teammates were staying, she said. The woman said she felt OK with going to the hotel with McLeod but would not have done it if she had been sober.

On Tuesday, Humphrey showed her video from the dancefloor where her left hand is on McLeod’s crotch. She agreed that McLeod had not made her do that but repeated there were points earlier in the night when the group “were making me feel each other’s crotches.”

The defence also suggested the woman looked “steady” when she left the bar with McLeod and when they walked into the hotel together, both of which were captured on security video.

The woman said that while she didn’t look unsteady, that didn’t reflect her mental state, adding it probably had taken a lot of effort to keep her balance.

The complainant’s initial sexual encounter with McLeod alone in the hotel room is not part of the trial. Jurors have heard the charges relate to what’s alleged to have happened in the room after others arrived.

Lawyers for the other players will also have the chance to cross-examine the complainant, who is appearing by CCTV from another room in the courthouse.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press