The high-profile sexual assault trial of 5 members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey workforce will generate “huge conversations” for years to return, one advocate says, as closing submissions are set to start.
The London, Ont., trial, which has seen two juries dismissed because it started in late April, has been continuing by decide alone and was adjourned final Monday after defence attorneys rested their circumstances.
Closing submissions will start Monday, and Crown prosecutors stated they’d want a day for it. Defence attorneys stated they’d collaborate to keep away from repetition throughout their submissions.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not responsible to sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group intercourse with a 20-year-old lady in McLeod’s London lodge room in June 2018.
McLeod has additionally pleaded not responsible to an extra cost of being a celebration to the offence of sexual assault.
Courtroom has heard that the workforce was in London for occasions marking its gold-medal efficiency at that yr’s championship, and the complainant, generally known as E.M. in courtroom paperwork, was out with associates once they met at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018.
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After being with McLeod and his teammates on the bar, E.M. would go on to have consensual intercourse with McLeod in his room within the early morning hours of June 19. Courtroom has heard that E.M., who testified she was drunk and never of clear thoughts, was within the washroom after she had intercourse with McLeod and got here out to a bunch of males within the room allegedly invited for a “3 method” by McLeod in a bunch chat.
It was then that the Crown alleges a number of sexual acts befell with out E.M.’s consent.
The 27-year-old lady, whose identification is protected below a regular publication ban, was topic to intense cross-examination throughout her practically two weeks on the stand.
Defence attorneys have recommended E.M. wasn’t as drunk as she has testified she was, wished a “wild evening” with the gamers and was “egging” them on to have intercourse along with her, and accused her of getting a “clear agenda” on the trial.
E.M. has pushed again towards these claims and at factors outright rejected them, saying she was coaxed into staying within the room, was disrespected and was taken benefit of by the group, who she stated “might see I used to be out of my thoughts.”
Solely Hart testified on the trial, whereas the opposite gamers’ attorneys cited proof and police interviews that have been already performed out in courtroom as a part of the the explanation why they weren’t calling proof.
Trial will generate ‘fairly huge conversations’ about consent: advocate
On the coronary heart of the Crown’s case is the query of consent, and advocate Jennifer Dunn stated that whatever the verdict, the problems on the coronary heart of the trial will generate “fairly huge conversations” for years to return.
“What sort of conversations can we’ve to shift … what consent is or wholesome relationships and that type of factor?” Dunn, government director of the London Abused Ladies’s Centre, informed World Information.
Jennifer Dunn, government director of the London Abused Ladies’s Centre, stands exterior a courthouse in London, Ont., on June 5, 2025. Dunn informed World Information the high-profile world junior sexual assault trial will generate “fairly huge conversations” on consent for years to return.
Sawyer Bogdan/World Information
All through E.M.’s testimony, Dunn stated the London Abused Ladies’s Centre had a presence in courtroom, including that the case attracts consideration to the necessity for a extra victim-centred strategy within the justice system.
However whatever the consequence, Dunn stated the trial is a robust message for sexual assault complainants.
“We have now a girl like E.M., who’s prepared to not solely undergo that, however then we’ve group coming collectively to assist her to point out different ladies that we’re not alone, that they’re not alone,” Dunn stated.
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