Former Team Canada forward Raddysh testifies at London hockey trial
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Content advisory: This article includes allegations of sexual assault and graphic language.
London, Ont. – Taylor Raddysh, a forward on Canada’s 2018 world junior team who currently plays for the Washington Capitals, testified remotely Wednesday afternoon in the sexual assault trial of five members of the team.
Raddysh told the court he remembered seeing a woman in Team Canada teammate Michael McLeod’s hotel room in London in the early hours of June 19, 2018, but couldn’t recall whether the woman was clothed and that he left the room after a brief period of time.
Raddysh is the first member of the team to testify under oath in the case.
McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote are charged with sexually assaulting a woman who is identified in court documents as E.M. in June 2018 at a London hotel following a Hockey Canada golf and gala event. McLeod faces a second sexual assault charge as a party to the offence. The players have all pleaded not guilty.
The 27-year-old Raddysh appeared via Zoom from Arlington Va., hours before the Capitals played the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Raddysh testified that he had difficulty remembering many details related to the incident.
Raddysh said that following a Team Canada ring ceremony and dinner during the evening of June 18, 2018, he and his teammates went out to Jack’s, a local London bar, to celebrate before he returned to his hotel room to FaceTime his then-girlfriend.
Under questioning by Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham, Raddysh testified that he had a hotel room next to McLeod, and that McLeod and Boris Katchouk came to his door and invited him to come to McLeod’s room.
Cunningham asked Raddysh what he remembered seeing when he walked into McLeod’s room.
“I don’t have any recollection of what I saw in that room,” Raddysh said.
Raddysh said he had difficulty recalling many of the details of the evening of the alleged sexual assault.
He was repeatedly given opportunities to refresh his memory by reviewing transcripts of prior interviews he conducted in 2022 with the London Police Service and in 2018 with Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, the Toronto law firm hired by Hockey Canada to investigate the incident.
But Raddysh repeatedly said he couldn’t recall many details after reviewing those transcripts.
At one point, Raddysh testified that he remembered a woman was on a bed in McLeod’s room.
“Do you remember if she was clothed or unclothed?” Cunningham asked.
“Sitting here today, I don’t remember,” Raddysh testified.
Raddysh said that he returned to his room after “a very short time” and does not remember hearing any noise coming from McLeod’s room.
McLeod also sent Raddysh a text message at 2:15 a.m. that read, “Come to my room if u want a gummer.” Raddysh, who told the court that “gummer” was a reference to oral sex, did not respond to that text message.
On June 26, 2018, a week after the alleged sexual assault, Raddysh sent McLeod a text message to say he had heard from Hockey Canada official Shawn Bullock that there was an investigation into the incident.
“Do you remember what you did after getting that call?” Cunningham asked.
“I called my father, I’m pretty sure,” Raddysh said.
He testified that he also sent text messages to McLeod and Brett Howden after hearing from Bullock.
Raddysh is scheduled to continue his testimony on Thursday morning.