Defence continues cross-examination of E.M. at London hockey trial

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

E.M., the complainant in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, finished having consensual sex with Michael McLeod and then asked him to text his teammates and invite them to come and have a “wild night” with her, a defence lawyer suggested on Tuesday.

During cross-examination, Michael McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey, challenged E.M.’s version of events on June 18, 2018, the night of the alleged sexual assault.

“I suggest that at that point you didn’t want to go home,” Humphrey said. “You wanted this party evening to continue and for some of the players to come back to the room.”

“No, I wouldn’t have done that. I would have wanted to go home,” E.M. answered.

“I suggest you said something like, ‘Get some of those guys back here. I want to have a wild night,’” Humphrey said.

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

McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote are charged with sexually assaulting E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

E.M., who is now 27, was 20 at the time of the alleged sexual assault at the Delta Armouries hotel in London. 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.

Humphrey is the first defence lawyer to cross examine E.M. Lawyers for the other four charged players will also have the opportunity to cross examine her.

Earlier on Tuesday, Humphrey suggested that E.M. knew McLeod was an “elite” and “loaded” hockey player when she drank and danced with him at a downtown London bar before going to his hotel room with him.

Humphrey asked E.M. in front of the jury if she recalled an older man named Matt Maccarone – previously identified to the jury by a London police officer as “a sponsor but not part of the team” – talking up McLeod to her.

“I’m going to suggest that part of what made Mr. McLeod attractive to you is that he was an elite hockey player and he was loaded,” Humphrey said.

“[Maccarone] was saying he’s a great guy… take care of him,” E.M. testified. “I was living at home at the time and comfortable. I had my own job, so it didn’t mean much to me.” 

E.M. testified that she didn’t learn that McLeod and his teammates played for Canada’s 2018 world juniors team until her mother “pieced that together” after the incident.

Humphrey read E.M. a statement she provided to Hockey Canada investigators in 2022 in which she said, “I didn’t follow hockey all that much, let alone the world juniors. By the end of the night, I just knew that I was with a group of guys staying at the Delta who were golfing the next day. If anyone introduced themselves I did not retain their names at Jack’s… I was very drunk and there was little to no conversation.”

Humphrey said that E.M.’s written statement in 2022, in which she said she didn’t know McLeod and his friends were hockey players, was contradictory to her statements to the jury when she said she had figured out the young men were hockey players while she was still at the bar.

“I guess I’m just having a hard time recalling exactly when I knew that they were hockey players… it was a really long and blurry night,” E.M. said, adding that she provided her 2022 statement without having had the opportunity to review her initial statements to police in 2018.

Humphrey also questioned E.M. about her behaviour on the evening of June 18, 2018, at Jack’s, a bar in downtown London.

E.M. has testified that she left Jack’s with McLeod and had consensual sex with him before she was sexually assaulted by a number of players. The jury has seen a text message sent by McLeod to his teammates asking, “Who wants to be in a 3 way quick. 209-Mikey”.

Humphrey showed E.M. a number of surveillance videos from Jack’s that showed E.M. meeting Brett Howden, a player now with the Vegas Golden Knights, before Howden introduced her to McLeod. Other videos showed E.M. dancing closely with McLeod and his teammates.

“There were times where you were grinding or pressing your body up against first Mr. McLeod?” Humphrey asked.

“That would be correct, yes.” E.M. responded.

“And other players?” Humphrey asked.

"I think with the other players too at certain points when there were a lot of them around" E.M. answered.

Humphrey suggested to E.M. that she liked the attention from McLeod and his friends.

“It was confusing for me because I’m not used to that kind of attention at the bar,” E.M. said. “It was not usual for me. They made it seem like it was fine, and with the amount I had to drink, I thought I’d go along with it. I thought maybe I should feel flattered and not question it too much.”

“Is that where we are now?” Humphrey asked, chuckling. “You’re only going to give it a maybe? You're not going to concede that in the dancing videos we see, you're not going to concede that you liked the attention?”

“I think outwardly it does look like that,” E.M. answered. “In my mind, I was really drunk. It was hard to make sense of what was happening with a lot of bodies on the floor. I think in my mind, I was confused.”

Humphrey also questioned E.M. on her previous testimony that McLeod and other players had placed her hands on their crotches at various points of the evening at Jack’s. Humphrey played a video that showed E.M. touching McLeod’s crotch while she was dancing between him and Howden.

E.M. agreed that the video did show her touching McLeod’s crotch on her own, but said at other points during the evening there were a number of instances where the men guided her hands to their crotches.

Another video played by Humphrey showed E.M. kissing McLeod and another player slapping her buttocks on the dance floor.

“It looks like you’re just fine dancing on your own,” Humphrey suggested.

“Yup, I can see myself, yup, dancing.” E.M. responded.

Humphrey also challenged E.M. about her previous testimony that she had gone to the bathroom at Jack's hoping to "ditch" McLeod.

Humphrey suggested that all E.M. would have had to do to get rid of McLeod was for her to say that her boyfriend was picking her up at Jack's at the end of the evening, as was their routine.

"I'm just someone who has a really hard time making up a lie to get out of a situation," E.M. answered. "That's just not who I am."