Hockey sexual assault trial: How we got here and what’s next
After seven eventful weeks in court, the Crown and the defence have finished presenting evidence and calling witnesses in the trial accusing five former NHLers of a 2018 sexual assault.
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Content warning: This story includes allegations of sexual assault.
LONDON, Ont. — After seven eventful weeks in court, the Crown and the defence have finished presenting evidence and calling witnesses in the trial accusing five former NHLers of a 2018 sexual assault.
On June 9, all five primary lawyers for the accused will start presenting their closing submissions. Ahead of that phase of the trial, it’s time to look back at the key events that shaped how we got here, and what we expect to happen next.
JUNE 2018
June 17-19: Members of the Canadian world junior men’s and sledge hockey teams gather in London, Ont., for a gala event celebrating their gold medal wins.
June 18-19: An alleged sexual assault occurs in Room 209 of the Delta Armouries hotel in London of E.M., as the complainant in the case is known because of a publication ban.
June 19: E.M.’s mother and her mother’s partner call London Police Service and Hockey Canada to report an incident at the Delta Armouries. Glen McCurdie, then Hockey Canada’s vice-president of insurance and risk management, calls Henein Hutchison lawyer Danielle Robitaille. McCurdie reports the incident to the London police.
June 22: LPS Detective Stephen Newton interviews E.M.
June 30-July 11: Robitaille interviews 10 of 19 the players on the 2018 world juniors team as part of her investigation.
Sept. 14: While awaiting E.M.’s participation, Robitaille submits an “interim report” to Hockey Canada.
Nov. 17: Det. Newton interviews Michael McLeod in person.
Nov. 24: Newton interviews Alex Formenton in person.
Dec. 18: Newton interviews Dillon Dube via conference call.
FEBRUARY 2019
Feb. 7: Newton closes the LPS investigation, determining there are insufficient grounds for charges.
SEPTEMBER 2020
Robitaille closes her investigation for Hockey Canada.
APRIL 2022
April 20: A settlement of claim is filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, seeking $3.55 million in damages for the plaintiff. Named in the suit are Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and eight “John Doe” players.
MAY 2022
May 26: A report by TSN’s Rick Westhead reveals Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with a woman, who alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight men, including members of the 2018 Canadian men’s world junior team, after an event in London honouring the team in June 2018.
The NHL opens an investigation into the incident.
JUNE 2022
June 20: A Parliamentary committee begins hearings into Hockey Canada’s operations and its investigation into the incident. Executives Tom Renney and Scott Smith testify.
June 22: Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge freezes Hockey Canada’s federal funds.
JULY 2022
July 14: Hockey Canada, via Robitaille, reopens its investigation and mandates that all players from the 2018 team cooperate or face a ban from future sanctioned events.
July 18: The Canadian Press reports that Hockey Canada had been using minor hockey fees for a fund used for uninsured liabilities, one of which was sexual assault claims.
July 19: Hockey Canada announces it would no longer use the fund for such claims.
July 22: LPS reopens its investigation, with Det. Lyndsey Ryan as the new lead investigator.
July 22: Police say they are investigating allegations of a group sexual assault by Canadian world junior players at the 2003 tournament in Halifax. The investigation remains ongoing.
July 26: Robitaille testifies before the Parliamentary committee that E.M. agreed on to participate in the reopened investigation. Robitaille does not name the eight John Does.
July 27: Smith tells the Parliamentary committee hearing that Hockey Canada had paid out $8.9 million to settle 21 sexual misconduct lawsuits. In subsequent days, multiple sponsors pause or sever sponsorships with Hockey Canada.
OCTOBER 2022
Oct. 1-18: Robitaille interviews McLeod, Dube and Formenton.
Oct. 13: Smith leaves his position as CEO and Hockey Canada’s entire board of directors resigns.
NOVEMBER 2022
Robitaille submits her second completed report to Hockey Canada, which has not been made public.
JULY 2023
July 4: Katherine Henderson, former CEO of Curling Canada, is named new CEO and president of Hockey Canada.
NOVEMBER 2023
Nov. 14: Hockey Canada says it is appealing the findings of Robitaille’s report.
JANUARY 2024
Jan. 28, 30: The players are charged: McLeod is charged by the LPS with two counts of sexual assault, including one relating to aiding in the offence. Dube, Formenton, Cal Foote and Carter Hart are each charged with one count of sexual assault.
FEBRUARY 2024
Feb. 2: The NHL concludes its investigation. Both NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh say they will wait to see how the criminal proceedings unfold before taking action.
Feb. 5: LPS chief Thai Truong apologizes to E.M. in a media conference “for the amount of time that it has taken” to lay charges.
NOVEMBER 2024
Nov. 28: Justice Bruce Thomas, the judge overseeing the pre-trial motions and hearings, rules the second Hockey Canada investigation — comprising interviews of the players as well as E.M. conducted by Robitaille — is inadmissible for the trial.
APRIL 2025
Justice Maria Carroccia, a former defence attorney from Windsor, Ont., is named as trial judge.
April 22: The trial begins. Charges are read in court in front of the accused for the first time. All plead not guilty to their charges. Jury selection begins.
April 25: Carroccia rules a mistrial one day into the proceedings, citing jury tainting as a concern after a defence lawyer and a juror cross paths at a local market during a lunch break.
April 28: Trial starts over again with a new jury.
April 30: Text messages from a group chat involving players who were in Room 209, where the alleged assault took place, in June 2018 are introduced as evidence. Notable is a pair of consecutive texts from McLeod: “Who wants to be in a 3 way quick” that was signed “209- mikey.”
April 30: Taylor Raddysh, the first member of the team to testify, appears via Zoom from Virginia and notably says he wasn’t in the room for very long and, “I don’t have any recollection of what I saw in that room.”
MAY 2025
May 2: Boris Katchouk testifies via Zoom from Pennsylvania that he was in Room 209 for a few minutes and didn’t speak to a woman lying on a bed before he left.
May 2: E.M. appears via CCTV from a different room in the courthouse, her first of nine days on the stand. She testifies she had 12 alcoholic drinks during the night in question.
May 5: E.M. testifies that after consensual sex with McLeod, she was sexually assaulted and feared for her safety with so many players in the room. She says the players talked about sexually assaulting her with a golf club. She also testifies she doesn’t remember the recording of the two cellphone videos in which she appears to give consent. “I’m saying what they’re wanting me to say. … I don’t think it reflected how I was feeling,” she says.
May 7: E.M. testifies she wasn’t a willing participant in the events of that night: “Feeling like I was completely out of my body, I didn’t feel like I was an active participant when I was that numb,” she tells the court. After intense cross-examination by Hart’s lawyer toward the end of the day, E.M. breaks down and cries.
May 14: E.M.’s last day on the stand. She testifies that when she participated in the civil lawsuit, it was her understanding that no players would be publicly named.
May 14-17: Former player Tyler Steenbergen testifies from Alberta that Foote and Dube each phoned him to ask him not to tell Hockey Canada investigators what he had seen them do on June 19, 2018. Steenbergen says he “partially” saw Foote do the splits over E.M. and Dube slap her buttocks: “It wasn’t hard, but it didn’t seem soft either.”
May 16: Second jury is dismissed after a juror sends a note to Carroccia saying members of the Formenton defence team were making fun of the jurors as they walked in. Defence successfully lobbies to have the trial continue as judge-only.
May 20-22: Brett Howden testifies from Las Vegas. His memory of previous statements and evidence is repeatedly questioned by the Crown, to the point he is treated as essentially a hostile witness. Howden breaks down and cries after being asked by defence lawyer Lisa Carnelos about telling his girlfriend, who’s now his wife, about the incident.
May 26: Carroccia rules for the second time in two days that text messages between Howden and Raddysh are inadmissible. At the heart of the issue are texts in which Howden told Raddysh he saw Dube smacking “the girl’s (butt) so hard, it looked like it hurt so bad.”
May 27: Howden concludes his testimony by denying to defence lawyer Julianna Greenspan that he was trying to minimize his role in the incident. A video of the London police interview with McLeod is shown. Notably, McLeod says in the interview he checked “five times” with E.M. during the night to see if she was OK and denies that anyone had sent a text message inviting players to the room for sex.
May 28: A video of the police interview with Formenton is shown. Court is also played the audio recording of Newton’s phone interview with Dube. Neither mention E.M. being smacked on the buttocks. Newton also testifies he did not have knowledge of a group chat in which players discussed the incident.
May 29: The Crown closes its case. Hart takes the stand, the only one of the five accused to do so, and testifies that his sexual contact with E.M. was consensual, that he saw E.M. hold hands with Formenton as they went to the bathroom together and he wouldn’t have tolerated anything “disrespectful” happening to the woman. Hart is challenged repeatedly by the Crown about his memory of events.
June 2: Lawyers for the defence say they have no further witnesses to call or evidence to introduce. The Crown has no further questions.
WHAT’S NEXT
June 9: All five primary lawyers for the accused will start presenting their closing submissions in the case. When they are done, the Crown will follow with its closing arguments. After that, Carroccia will tell the court when she expects to present her findings and her ruling. That exact date is not expected to be soon, although expectations are that the defence will push for sooner than later.
