E.M. details alleged sexual assault in London hotel room

Content advisory: This article includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault

London Ont. – E.M., the woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, told a jury Monday that after she had consensual sex with Michael McLeod early in the morning of June 19, 2018, she was sexually assaulted and felt she had to go along with what McLeod and some of his teammates wanted her to do in order to get out of the crowded hotel room safely.

E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified that after she and McLeod initially had consensual sex in his room following a night of dancing and drinking at a downtown bar in London, Ont., the mood of the room shifted after McLeod began texting people and then a number of men began appearing in the room. She testified players repeatedly stopped her from leaving the room.

“I was feeling scared,” E.M. told the court. “I didn’t know where things were going. I didn’t know how to handle that kind of situation. “I was scared and confused, I guess… They were laughing at me; they were spitting on me at points. It just seemed like a joke to them. But I was feeling just intimidated and not sure how to react.”

McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote are charged with sexual assault. McLeod faces a second charge of party to the offence. If they are convicted, the players face up to 10 years in prison. They have all pleaded not guilty.

E.M. testified that after she had consensual sex with McLeod and went to the bathroom, she returned to the bedroom, lay down naked on a bed, and saw McLeod fully dressed and texting someone. McLeod then left for a brief period of time and two other men entered the room.

“I was shocked by that,” E.M. testified.

E.M. told the court that she went to the bathroom again and after she returned to the hotel room, there were a number of other men present. She testified that the men directed her to lay on the floor and when she refused, someone put down a bedsheet.

E.M. testified that she had a “weird feeling of my mind separating itself from my body. I just remember the way I picture that night. My mind kind of floated to the top corner of the ceiling. I just started watching everything happen...It didn’t feel like I had any control, it didn’t feel like I had a choice.”

She testified that there were golf clubs in the room and the players “talked about putting golf balls in my vagina” and talked about whether E.M. could “take the whole golf club in me.”

E.M. testified that she was directed by the players to touch herself sexually and moan and then three of the men pulled down their pants and wanted her to perform oral sex on them while some of the men in the room said “suck on it” and “spit on it.” She said someone spit on her back and someone slapped her buttocks as she performed the sex acts.

After that finished, E.M. testified that a man did the splits overtop of her, putting his penis on her face, adding that she did not see the man’s face.

“I shut down and let my body do what it needed to do to keep me safe,” E.M. told the court. “It felt like the safe thing to do was give them what they were wanting.”

E.M. said she then went into the bathroom and was followed in by one of the men, who bent her over the sink and had sex with her, using a condom. E.M. testified she also performed oral sex on the man after he removed the condom.

E.M. was shown an annotated photo of the 2018 Canadian world junior team at a ring ceremony in June 2018. A note written by a police investigator said “bathroom” and pointed to Formenton. E.M. said she also later identified him by the acne on his face.

E.M. said she repeatedly tried to get dressed and leave the room but when she did, one of the men would put their arm around her and tell her to remain, moving her away from the door. She said she felt ill but couldn’t throw up.

“I felt like I had no option,” E.M. testified. “They kept bringing me back.”

At one point one of the men noticed she was crying, and she heard him say, “Oh, she’s crying, don’t let her go,” E.M. testified.

Towards the end of the evening, E.M. testified that McLeod wanted her to perform oral sex on him as he was laying on his bed. She said as she did so, a number of men began slapping her buttocks “as hard as they could” and she told them to stop because of how much it hurt.

Following a morning break, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham played two short videos that were filmed during the incident.

In one video, a man off camera said, “You’re okay with this, right? You’re okay with this?”

E.M. responded, “I’m okay with this.”

In a second video, E.M.’s torso was covered by a towel. She said, “This was all consensual. Are you recording me? Okay good. You are so paranoid. Holy. I enjoyed it. It was fine. I’m so sober. That’s why I can’t do this right now.”

E.M. told the court she doesn’t remember either of the videos being recorded and told the court she thought she was laying on the bedsheet on the ground in the first video and that the second video was filmed after McLeod had told all of the other players to leave the room.

Cunningham asked E.M. her frame of mind when the videos were filmed.

“It’s at a point where my mind is disconnected from my body and what I’m actually doing,” she testified. “I’m saying what they’re wanting me to say and wanting to hear from me. I don’t think it really reflected how I was feeling.”

E.M. testified that the second video was filmed after McLeod had had sex with her for a second time and then told her to get into the shower with him.

“I see myself really drunk,” E.M. told the court. “I’m speaking really fast. My eyes look like crazy eyes. This doesn’t really look like me…  Watching it back and hearing him tell me to say it, he was trying to get me to say it [was consensual] on camera.”

She said McLeod had “been hounding” her several times through the evening to say on camera that the events were consensual.

“I was trying to leave at points,” E.M. testified. “I was crying at points. I think he knew it wasn’t consensual.”

The jury was shown Delta Armouries surveillance video of E.M. getting into an Uber outside the hotel entrance at 4:49 a.m. and arriving at her home at 5:08 a.m.

Cunningham later took E.M. through a series of June 20, 2018, text messages between McLeod and E.M. after E.M.’s mother contacted police.

“You were having fun,” McLeod texted E.M. at one point.

“I was really drunk, didn’t feel good about it at all after. But I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble, I know I was in the wrong too,” E.M. responded at the time to McLeod’s text.

Cunningham asked E.M. to explain the message.

“I was very much thinking it was my fault and take some responsibility,” E.M. told the court. “That’s just who I am. I am not sure what I was expecting him to say. I thought maybe there would be some kind of responsibility he would take on his end. I was trying to keep it non-confrontational.”

In one June 20, 2018, message the jury was shown, McLeod wrote that pursuing a complaint “could have implications for you too.”
In another text the same day, McLeod asked E.M. what was happening.

“Told them I’m not going to pursue it any further and that it was a mistake,” E.M. texted back. “You should be good now so hopefully nothing more comes of it. Sorry again for the misunderstanding.”

E.M. testified that she was “telling him what he wants to hear so he can leave me alone. I’m still apologizing, blaming myself, feeling like it was my fault too… I didn’t want to be contacted by him anymore.”

Following a lunch break, McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey, began cross-examination.

Humphrey suggested that E.M. had made up a “drama” about being assaulted because she felt ashamed that she had cheated on her boyfriend at the time and didn’t want the incident to cause them to break up.

Humphrey asked E.M. about the morning of June 19, 2018, when her mother found her crying in the shower after she returned from the Delta Armouries hotel.

“I suggest one of the reasons you’re crying is that you’re feeling guilty about cheating on [your boyfriend],” Humphrey said. “I suggest one way you might avoid breaking up with [your boyfriend] was to tell this story.”

“I just blamed myself for getting really drunk and not thinking straight before leaving with McLeod,” E.M. answered, adding that she felt guilty for cheating on her boyfriend of about three months.

E.M. testified that she told her boyfriend some of what had happened at the Delta.

“I didn’t get into great details,” she said. “Told him I left the bar and had sex and there were other men around and it wasn’t a good situation. I told him I’d understand if he no longer wanted to be with me.”

Humphrey suggested to E.M. that when her mother found her in the shower, E.M. had said, “It’s all my fault. I have to break up with [her boyfriend].”

“I was feeling that was my only option,” E.M. answered. “I felt that would be the right thing to do… My mind was all over the place. I was still coming to terms with what had happened.”

E.M. testified that while she went to the hospital on three days after the incident, she did not decide to submit to a “head to toe” rape kit because she said she did not have physical injuries.

She also testified that when she spoke to a police investigator after her mother initially contacted an officer, E.M wanted police to merely document what had happened at the hotel, speak with the hockey players involved, and warn them about their allegedly bad behaviour.

But when E.M. learned the players could have refused to speak with police, she said she told an officer she wanted to proceed with a full investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

Humphrey also challenged E.M. over her willingness to message with McLeod over Instagram after the alleged sexual assault.

“You could have ignored him,” Humphrey said. “You could have blocked Michael McLeod. I suggest you were quite happy to have a conversation with Mike McLeod and you chose not to block him.”

“I try to keep people happy,” E.M. answered. “Even if I’m angry or hurt, that’s not how I respond. I had questions, too. I didn’t know why he was contacting me. I wanted to know why.”