The high-profile sexual assault trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team will generate “large conversations” for years to come back, 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 legal professionals rested their cases.
Closing submissions will start Monday, and Crown prosecutors mentioned they’d want a day for it. Defence legal professionals mentioned they might 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 girl in McLeod’s London resort 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 12 months’s championship, and the complainant, often known as E.M. in courtroom paperwork, was out with mates 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 approach” by McLeod in a bunch chat.
It was then that the Crown alleges a number of sexual acts passed off with out E.M.’s consent.
The 27-year-old girl, whose id is protected beneath an ordinary publication ban, was topic to intense cross-examination throughout her almost two weeks on the stand.
Defence legal professionals have instructed E.M. wasn’t as drunk as she has testified she was, wished a “wild night” with the gamers and was “egging” them on to have intercourse together with her, and accused her of getting a “clear agenda” on the trial.
E.M. has pushed again in opposition to 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 mentioned “may see I used to be out of my thoughts.”
Only Hart testified at the trial, whereas the opposite gamers’ legal professionals cited proof and police interviews that have been already performed out in courtroom as a part of the explanation why they weren’t calling proof.
Trial will generate ‘fairly large conversations’ about consent: advocate
On the coronary heart of the Crown’s case is the query of consent, and advocate Jennifer Dunn mentioned that whatever the verdict, the problems on the coronary heart of the trial will generate “fairly large conversations” for years to come back.
“What sort of conversations can now we have to shift … what consent is or wholesome relationships and that type of factor?” Dunn, govt director of the London Abused Ladies’s Centre, instructed International Information.
Jennifer Dunn, govt director of the London Abused Ladies’s Centre, stands exterior a courthouse in London, Ont., on June 5, 2025. Dunn instructed International Information the high-profile world junior sexual assault trial will generate “fairly large conversations” on consent for years to come back.
Sawyer Bogdan/International Information
All through E.M.’s testimony, Dunn mentioned 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 final result, Dunn mentioned the trial is a robust message for sexual assault complainants.
“We’ve got a girl like E.M., who’s keen to not solely undergo that, however then now we have group coming collectively to assist her to indicate different girls that we’re not alone, that they’re not alone,” Dunn mentioned.
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