Hart takes the stand after Crown rests at London hockey trial

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

LONDON, ONT. – Carter Hart testified Thursday morning that he asked E.M. for oral sex when he and his teammates were in Michael McLeod’s hotel room during the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, because he was intoxicated, excited and single.

Hart, 26, began testifying in person in his own defence in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team.

Hart’s testimony came after Michael McLeod declined the opportunity to testify in the case.

The court has heard testimony that McLeod sent a group text message to all of the Team Canada players at 2:10 a.m. that morning that said “Who is up for a 3 way quick… 209-mikey”

Hart testified McLeod also phoned him to invite him to his room.

“The gist was Mike was with a girl back at the hotel who wanted to have sex with some of the boys,” Hart testified about the call. “I was open to sexual encounters. A single guy, I was having a good time that weekend. I was open to it."

Hart told the trial that by that point in the evening he was “probably pretty drunk,” after having consumed a number of drinks of champagne, vodka sodas and beer earlier.

McLeod, Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote are accused of sexually assaulting a then-20-year-old woman in McLeod’s hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod is facing a second charge as being a party to the act. The players have all pleaded not guilty.

The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban and is referred to as E.M. in court documents, has alleged that after she had consensual sex with McLeod, he surreptitiously invited his teammates to his room and that she was sexually assaulted for hours.

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.

E.M. previously testified that while she was in McLeod's room, players spit on her, slapped her hard, laughed at her, and asked if she “could take” a golf club inside her vagina.

Hart testified that his first memory of E.M. in the room was seeing her laying on the floor masturbating in front of seven players.

“She seemed to be enjoying it,” Hart testified. “She seemed to be enjoying that players were watching her do that. I remember her moaning.”

“How were you feeling?” Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, asked.

“Pretty excited,” Hart answered. “I’m 19 years old and there’s a naked girl in the room doing these things willingly. It was something I’d never seen before.”

Hart testified that E.M. then asked the players to have sex with her.

“Guys were looking at each other like, is this real?” Hart said. “It was kind of crazy. Guys were saying to each other, ‘You do it,’ or ‘You do it.’ Most of the guys in the room had girlfriends… I was single at the time… I was the one standing closest next to her so I said, ‘Can I get a blowie?’ meaning blow job… She said ‘Yeah’ or ‘Sure’ or something along those lines.”

Hart testified that E.M. helped him pull his khaki jogger pants down and gave him oral sex for between 30 and 60 seconds.

“I remember not being able to get fully erect,” he said. “I was half hard, I guess… I do remember making eye contact with somebody.  It just was like, weird.”

Savard asked Hart why he would agree to a public sex act and he answered that he did not have vaginal sex with her.

“I had a lot to drink that night,” he said. “I was single. I was open to taking her up on one of her offers.”

Hart testified that he remembered E.M. again asking players to have sex with her and then watched Formenton hold hands with E.M. and enter the bathroom together.

At about that point, Hart testified that he sent a text message to Team Canada teammate Dante Fabbro that said, “get to 209.”

“Why did you invite him?” Savard asked.

“I remember most guys had girlfriends at the time,” Hart answered. “Fabs was one of the only other guys on the team at the time who was single.”

Hart testified that after E.M. came out of the bathroom, she lay down on the ground again and he watched as Foote did the splits overtop of her.

“Other guys in the room said, ‘Do the splits,’” Hart said. “He’s a big, tall dude, super flexible. It’s a pretty cool thing for him to do… I don’t believe he even went into a full split.”

Hart testified that Foote did not make contact with E.M. and he wore a shirt and shorts.

“I remember when he did it guys thought it was pretty funny,” Hart testified. “I thought it was funny, and I was standing right next to [Foote] when it happened. I looked and saw E.M. was laughing as well.”

Hart, who said he was in McLeod’s hotel room for about an hour, testified that he did not see E.M. have any sexual contact with Dube or McLeod.

Hart also testified Thursday about a June 26, 2018, group chat in which 11 players talked about what to say to Hockey Canada and police investigators who were probing E.M.’s complaint of sexual assault.

“We all need to say the same thing if we get interviewed,” McLeod wrote to the group at 8:09 p.m. “Can’t have different stories or make anything up.”

Two minutes later, Jake Bean wrote: “No, boys. Like we don’t need to make anything up. No one did anything wrong. We went to that room to eat. The girl came, she wanted to have sex with all of us. No one did. She gave a few guys head, and then we got out of the room when things got too crazy.”

“All we have to say is someone brought the girl back to the room,” Brett Howden wrote at 8:14 p.m. “We were all in there ordering food and then this girl started begging from everyone to have sex with her. Nobody would do it. But then as time went on she gave 3 guys head. Once things started to get out of hand we all left and got her out.”

Hart testified on Thursday that at the time of that group text message, he was playing with the Philadelphia Flyers and was in New Jersey doing Navy SEAL training during the NHL team’s development camp.

Hart testified that he first read the chat after he returned to his hotel room in New Jersey and saw 117 new text messages on his phone. After that group chat, Hart and McLeod spoke on the phone, Hart testified.

“I wanted to confirm if it was Hockey Canada or police or both who were doing an investigation,” Hart said.

Hart testified that there were as many as eight men in the hotel room when E.M. was performing sexual acts on a bedsheet on the floor.

Under cross-examination from Formenton’s lawyer, Hilary Dudding, Hart testified that he never saw anyone spit on E.M., laugh at her, degrade her, or treat her disrespectfully.

“Is that something that would have stood out to you?” Dudding asked.

“If something like that would have happened, I would have stopped, I would have left…” Hart answered.

Court adjourned for the day at about 2:30 p.m. ET after Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham asked the judge for some time to prepare before her cross-examination of Hart.

Earlier on Thursday, Cunningham advised Justice Maria Carroccia that the Crown had finished presenting its case.

On Wednesday, Cunningham had told the court that she was considering calling an additional witness to testify following retired London police sergeant Stephen Newton.

Cunningham had contemplated calling Maxime Comtois, a former member of the 2018 Canadian world junior team who played this season in the KHL, a source familiar with the matter told TSN. 

Comtois has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in the case.