In 2018 police interview, McLeod never says E.M. asked for ‘wild night’ with teammates

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

LONDON, ONT – When Michael McLeod first spoke with London police in November 2018 about an alleged sexual assault five months earlier, he didn’t say that E.M., the complainant in the case, asked him to invite his Team Canada teammates back to his hotel room to engage in group sex – a claim his lawyer made earlier in the trial.

On Tuesday, the trial of McLeod and four of his former teammates on Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team was shown a 2018 police interview in which McLeod shared his version of what happened the night of an alleged sexual assault and in the days after.

London Police Service sergeant Stephen Newton, who was the lead investigator in the case after E.M. initially contacted police and who closed the case without laying charges in early 2019, conducted the Nov. 17, 2018, interview of McLeod at the office of his Toronto lawyer, David Humphrey.

McLeod told Newton that there were eight or nine players in his hotel room at any one time with E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban. McLeod said at one point in the interview with Newton that he filmed two so-called consent videos because “I was worried something like this would happen.”

Newton, who is now retired, testified remotely on Tuesday. He said that the only members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team who he interviewed in connection with his investigation were McLeod and Alex Formenton, who both agreed to in-person interviews, and Callan Foote and Dillon Dube, who spoke to Newton on the phone.

McLeod, Formenton, Dube, Foote, and Carter Hart are accused of sexually assaulting E.M. in McLeod’s hotel room during the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, following a night of dancing and drinking at a downtown London bar. McLeod faces a second charge of being party to the offence. All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The Crown has alleged that Formenton had sex with E.M. in the bathroom, that McLeod, Hart and Dube received oral sex from the complainant, that Dube slapped E.M.’s naked buttocks, that Foote did the splits over E.M.’s head and “grazed” his genitals over her head, and that McLeod had sex with E.M. for a second time in the hotel room bathroom.

McLeod, who was 20 in 2018, told Newton in the interview that after dancing and drinking with his teammates and E.M., he and E.M. went to his hotel room and had sex. Afterwards, McLeod said he decided to use Uber Eats to order mozzarella sticks and chicken wings.

Before he went to pick up his food order, McLeod said Hart and three or four other players came to his room and started hanging out. McLeod said when he returned to the room after five minutes, he saw E.M. giving Hart oral sex on one of the beds.

“She seemed completely fine with it,” McLeod told Newton. “It didn’t last too long, the blow job.”

After that, more players started to make their way into the room until there were eight or nine men in the room with E.M., McLeod told Newton.

“We were all hanging out,” he said. “We were drunk but we weren’t blackout drunk by any means… we all had our heads on straight for the most part… she wanted to do stuff with other guys… she got on the bed and she was naked at that time… she got on the bed and said, ‘Who wants to have sex with me? Who’s going to step up and have sex with me?’ We were stunned by it.”

The trial has previously been shown a text message that McLeod sent to his teammates at 2:10 a.m. that said, “Who wants to be in 3 way quick… 209-mikey.”

During his cross-examination of E.M. on May 6, Humphrey had suggested that after she had consensual sex with McLeod, E.M. “said something like, ‘Get some of those guys back here. I want to have a wild night.’”

“That doesn’t sound like something I would say and I don’t remember saying those words,” E.M. answered.

McLeod made no mention of E.M.’s alleged request during his 2018 police interview. London police were not aware of the group text message in which McLeod invited players to his room for group sex at the time Newton conducted the interview and did not obtain it until 2022 after the LPS reopened its investigation.

McLeod told Newton “I don’t know how guys kept showing up” to his room. McLeod said that he told some of his teammates that he had ordered food and “had a girl in the room.”

McLeod also did not mention to Newton a text message he sent to teammate Taylor Raddysh on June 19, 2018, at 2:15 am, in which McLeod wrote, ”Come to my room if u want a gummer.” (London police also did not obtain that text exchange until 2022.)

E.M. has previously testified that she cried and tried to leave McLeod’s hotel room several times, but players would refuse to let her leave and guide her back to a bedsheet that had been placed on the floor. McLeod did not tell Newton about the use of a bedsheet in the interview shown Tuesday.

E.M. has previously testified that she felt threatened and afraid after players suggested she put golf balls in her vagina and asked if she “could take” an entire golf club. Asked by Newton about that allegation, McLeod said he had not heard any comments about golf balls or clubs.

McLeod then told Newton that after E.M. began asking players for sex, Formenton came into the hotel room. At that time, there were four or five men in the room, McLeod said.

“He [Formenton] didn’t want to have it in front of us,” McLeod told Newton. “So they went in the bathroom and had sex, I’m pretty sure from what I know… They were in there for 10, 15 minutes maybe.”

After more men entered the room, E.M. became upset when no one accepted her offer for sexual acts, McLeod told Newton.

“I had to calm her down… and say, “are you okay?” McLeod said. “I told her we’re not going to have sex with you…no one wants to have sex with nine other guys…she felt better about that…later on we were hanging out again…she was feeling better…she was offering to give guys blow jobs again…I got one, Carter Hart got one…maybe Dillon Dube.”

Hart received oral sex twice during the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, McLeod said.

At one point, McLeod said he filmed two videos of E.M. saying sexual activity that night had been consensual.

“I made sure I didn’t get anything of her naked,” McLeod said of the filming. “I just tried to get her face in it and just said, ‘Are you okay with this?’ And she said yes. And so I just kind of throughout the night I was trying to make sure she was okay with this because it’s a weird situation that I wasn’t expecting was going to happen with all the guys coming in… I was worried something like this might happen...”

McLeod told Newton he was certain that no other videos had been recorded in his hotel room.

“We made a rule – no videos,” McLeod said. “We made sure no one was taking videos.”

“So you talked about the rules of engagement around that?” Newton asked.

“Yeah, we’re just like ‘No videos guys, be smart about this,’” McLeod answered.

McLeod told Newton that by 3:30 or 4 a.m., the only people remaining in the room were him, his roommate Formenton, and E.M.

“All these guys are smart guys,” McLeod said. “They didn’t want it to get out of hand. It was late.”

McLeod said that after he got in the shower, E.M. joined him and they had sex again.

McLeod told Newton that E.M. was upset at the end of the night because she had lost a ring in the hotel room.

“You did look for the ring?” Newton asked.

“We did look for it… or at least pretend to look for it…,” McLeod answered.

At the end of the interview, Newton asked McLeod what he would do if confronted with a similar incident in the future.

“Probably just shut it down right away,” McLeod said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Vegas Golden Knights forward Brett Howden was accused by a defence lawyer of downplaying his interactions with E.M. at Jack’s bar.

Howden, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, was the fourth member of that national team to testify in the case, following Raddysh, Boris Katchouk and Tyler Steenbergen.

In a terse exchange on Tuesday morning, Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, repeatedly suggested that Howden avoided sharing some information about his actions at Jack’s on June 18, 2018, to limit his potential exposure.

The surveillance video showed Howden dancing “in close contact” with E.M., Greenspan said.

“You’re holding hands?” Greenspan asked.

“I’m just saying what I seen, and I didn’t see us holding hands,” Howden answered.

“You’re leaning down, either kissing her neck or right in her neck space?” Greenspan asked.

“I don’t think that’s fair to say that. I think it’s hard to see what I’m doing,” he answered.

Howden confirmed that he talked and danced with E.M., introduced her to McLeod, and then danced with her again.

Greenspan said that in 2023, after the London police reopened their investigation, Howden told police that he didn’t really remember E.M. and only recalled “glancing at her at the bar and that was really just it.”

Greenspan repeatedly suggested that Howden was downplaying his interaction with E.M.

“I don’t think that it’s fair that a couple minutes out of a whole night, that you just expect me to know this girl that I’ve met for the first time in my life,” Howden said.

“I guess things aren’t fair, are they?” Greenspan answered.