Katchouk, Raddysh testify at London hockey trial

Content advisory: This article includes allegations of sexual assault

London, Ont. – Boris Katchouk, a former member of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, testified Friday that after returning to the team hotel early on June 19, 2018, following a night of partying with his teammates, he visited Michael McLeod’s hotel room, where he saw a woman lying on a bed.

Katchouk testified that he spent no more than a few minutes in McLeod’s room, didn’t speak to the woman, and declined an offer from McLeod for oral sex from the woman.

Katchouk, who is not accused of wrongdoing, testified remotely from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Penn., where he played this season with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Katchouk was the second member of Canada’s 2018 world junior team to testify in the sexual assault trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote.

The defendants are accused of sexually assaulting a woman referred to in court documents as E.M. in London’s Delta Armouries hotel. McLeod faces a second sexual assault charge of being party to the offence. The players have all pleaded not guilty.

Katchouk testified that he left a downtown bar where he was partying with his teammates and bought a slice of pizza before returning to the Delta Armouries hotel with Foote at 2:23 a.m. As he was walking to his room on the hotel’s second floor, Katchouk saw McLeod in the hallway and McLeod asked Katchouk to come into his room, Katchouk testified.

Katchouk testified that he obliged, and saw a woman lying on a bed when he entered, under the sheets.

“What’s going through your mind at the time?” Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham asked. “What are you thinking?”

“I was just having a normal conversation with Mikey,” Katchouk said. “There was nothing going through my head.”

Katchouk said that McLeod then asked if he wanted a “gummer,” which he explained was slang for oral sex.

“Just so that we’re clear, from your perspective, who did you think would be the one giving [oral sex] when Mr. McLeod offered [it]?” Cunningham asked.

“The woman on the bed,” Katchouk answered, testifying that McLeod’s alleged offer “just blew over my head. Nothing to think about. Just never really came to me at the moment. I had a girlfriend at the time, so there was nothing for me to really think about…”
“Do you recall if you responded in any way to that offer?” Cunningham asked.

“I believe I just laughed and didn’t really talk about it after that,” Katchouk answered.

Katchouk said when he was alone with the complainant for several minutes after McLeod left the room for a few minutes, she asked for a bite of his pizza. Katchouk testified he couldn’t remember his response but did not give her any pizza.

Katchouk testified McLeod and Taylor Raddysh then entered the room and Raddysh then suggested to Katchouk that they leave. Both then walked out of the room.

Under cross examination from David Humphrey, one of McLeod’s lawyers, Katchouk said he thought McLeod was joking when he offered oral sex.

“I did not take it seriously,” Katchouk said. “I just carried on with our normal conversation.”

Katchouk testified he was in McLeod’s hotel room for no more than two minutes and that E.M. 's demeanour was “playful” and “flirty” when she allegedly asked him for a bite of his pizza.

Before Katchouk took the stand, Raddysh continued his testimony on Friday morning after beginning on Wednesday. There was no court on Thursday because one of the jurors was ill.

Raddysh, a 27-year-old forward with the Washington Capitals who played on the 2018 team, testified remotely via Zoom from Arlington, Va. On Wednesday, Raddysh told the jury that he couldn’t recall many details related to the evening of the incident on June 18, 2018.
In front of the 14-person jury on Friday, Cunningham had Raddysh read aloud from a transcript of an interview he participated in related to the incident on July 5, 2018. Cunningham read the questions Raddysh was asked in that 2018 interview and Raddysh was asked to read the answers he gave at the time.

The parts of the 2018 transcript read by Cunningham related to the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, when E.M. was in McLeod’s hotel room. Raddysh testified Wednesday that he was in the room very briefly with the woman, McLeod and Katchouk.

Raddysh has testified he had difficulty remembering specific moments from that night.

“So you were in there for a total of two minutes, maybe?” Cunningham said, reading from the 2018 interview transcript.

“Yeah… not a long time at all,” Raddysh said, reading the answers he gave in 2018.

“So when you saw her did you say anything at all to her?” Cunningham continued.

“Not that I remember,” Raddysh said. “I don’t think I even really looked at her.”

“Do you remember anything being said to her or by her?” Cunningham said.

“No, I was talking to Boris and Mikey the whole time,” Raddysh said “I never heard her say anything.”

Raddysh told the interviewer in 2018 that the woman he saw in McLeod’s hotel room “seemed fine” and “seemed quite normal.” He said she was lying on the bed, had the sheets pulled up covering most of her body. Raddysh said he could “see her traps [trapezius muscles, which are muscles in the upper back and neck]” and could not tell whether she was wearing clothes under the sheets.

Reading from his 2018 statement, Raddysh said he fell asleep after he returned to his room after being next door in McLeod’s room. Raddysh said he woke up when Brett Howden and other teammates returned to the hotel around 4 a.m. on June 19, 2018. Howden, who was Raddysh’s roommate and has also not been accused of wrongdoing, entered and exited their room several times, Raddysh said, reading from his statement.

Reading from his 2018 statement, Raddysh said he heard “all the noise and stuff like that” coming from outside his room at the time.

 “Could you tell the noise was coming from Mikey’s room?” Cunningham said, reading from the 2018 transcript.

“Yeah for sure there was talking and chattering,” Raddysh said. “Hooting and hollering kind of thing.”

Under cross examination, Raddysh testified that while he met with the Crown attorney on March 28, 2025 to prepare for his testimony, he had trouble recalling a number of details of that meeting.

Riaz Sayani, one of Hart’s lawyers, asked Raddysh whether he remembered putting a sheet down on the floor of McLeod’s room for E.M.

“No,” Raddysh answered.

Lisa Carnelos, one of Dube’s lawyers, then asked Raddysh about his July 2018 interview. Raddysh told an investigator at the time that he was on FaceTime with one of his “buddies” when McLeod and Katchouk came and invited him to McLeod’s hotel room. That wasn’t true, Carnelos suggested.

“In fact, you were on FaceTime with your girlfriend who is now your wife. You just did that out of nervousness, right?” Carnelos asked.

“I guess you could say that,” Raddysh said. “At the time when I did the interview we were freshly dating. She is one of my good friend’s sisters. It was very uncomfortable…. I just referred to her as my buddy… I clarified that in a future interview with the London police.”

Julianna Greenspan, one of Foote’s lawyers, later asked Raddysh about his memories of the incident.

“I’m going to suggest that when you were in the room, you saw [E.M.] get up off the bed and walk around the room naked. Is that what happened? Do you accept that?” Greenspan asked.

“No,” Raddysh answered.

“I suggest that [E.M.] told police in 2018 that when you were in the room, she is naked on the bed exposed. Do you agree that is what happened, sir?” Greenspan asked.

“Sitting here today I don’t really remember that, but I didn’t state that in my transcript. I would for sure have remembered that… that would be pretty hard to forget.”

Before the hearing, a group of protestors advocating for sexual assault survivors gathered outside the London courthouse. They held up signs and stood silently as the defendants walked into the building.

Cunningham told the jury that E.M. would begin testifying later this afternoon following a lunch break