{"id":158172,"date":"2025-07-24T15:57:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ruling-expected-today-in-sexual-assault-trial-of-five-hockey-players-citynews-toronto\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:57:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:57:26","slug":"ruling-expected-today-in-sexual-assault-trial-of-five-hockey-players-citynews-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ruling-expected-today-in-sexual-assault-trial-of-five-hockey-players-citynews-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruling expected today in sexual assault trial of five hockey players – CityNews Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Toronto
\t\t\tBy Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press and News Staff\t\t
Posted July 24, 2025 4:00 am.
Last Updated July 24, 2025 11:45 am.
WARNING: The following story contains graphic content and descriptions which some readers may find disturbing. Discretion is advised.<\/em>
An Ontario judge is expected to deliver her ruling today in the sexual assault trial for five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in an encounter that took place in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.
Here’s the latest: 
11:37 a.m.<\/strong>
The judge says she’s only halfway through reading her decision and she has called for a brief recess. 
The hockey players are smiling and hugging their lawyers as they file out of court for the break.
Some in the audience are also hugging each other.
11:17 a.m.<\/strong>
The judge is going over text messages between the complainant and McLeod after the encounter in the hotel room.
Court heard that McLeod had asked the woman what she could do to make the police investigation “go away.”
Carroccia notes the complainant told McLeod that reporting the encounter to police was a mistake and that she was not trying to push the case any further. 
The complainant had testified that she was worried when McLeod contacted her. 
11:08 a.m.<\/strong>
The judge is taking note of the so-called consent videos presented as evidence in the trial. 
Court was shown two short clips showing the complainant saying she was “OK” with what was happening in the hotel room and that “it was all consensual.” 
Carroccia says the woman did not display any signs of intoxication in the videos and that she spoke clearly. 
She notes the woman testified the videos were not a true reflection of how she was feeling that night. 
The Crown has argued the videos are not proof of consent to the sexual acts that took place.
Judge now going over E.M.'s statements to police and Hockey Canada, pointing out inconsistencies.
10:45 a.m.<\/strong>
The judge is going over the facts of the case before she delivers her ruling on the charges against each of the players.
She is describing the details the court has heard over the course of the trial, such as how the complainant met McLeod at a bar before going to his hotel room with him, and the texts she’d exchanged with a friend that night.
The judge is also recapping the complainant’s testimony about how she felt after the encounter and what happened after she got home that night.
10:30 a.m.<\/strong>
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is telling court that the complainant in the case did not present credible testimony.
Sighs of relief can be heard in the courtroom, where family members of the accused are sitting behind defence lawyers.
She has not yet delivered a formal ruling.
The accused hockey players snapped around to look at their family\/friends when the judge said this.
10:25 a.m.<\/strong>
Proceedings are underway in a packed courtroom as the judge is expected to deliver her ruling. 
9:25 a.m.<\/strong>
All five accused players are now inside the London, Ont., courthouse where a judge is expected to deliver her decision in their sexual assault trial later this morning.
Carter Hart was the last accused player to arrive, a little before 9:30 a.m.
Protesters outside are getting quieter after the players’ arrival, and they say they plan to be back this afternoon after the judge makes her ruling.
9:10 a.m.<\/strong>
Four of five accused former hockey players are now at the courthouse to await the ruling in their case.
Dillon Dube was the first to enter, followed by Alex Formenton, both of them arriving before 9 a.m.
Michael McLeod and Callan Foote followed.
Protesters’ chanting is intensifying as each player arrives.
8 a.m.<\/strong>
Supporters of the complainant in the case are gathering outside the courthouse as the line to enter grows longer.
The supporters are carrying colourful signs signalling support for survivors of sexual assault, and copies of planned chants printed on bright orange paper. 
One reads: “My dress is not a yes.” 
One person is writing out the word “believe” in block letters with chalk on the sidewalk.
Supporters of the woman at the heart of this trial, known publicly as E.M. pic.twitter.com\/lnrnzwFBKn<\/a>
7 a.m.<\/strong>
Reporters and observers began lining up outside the London, Ont., courthouse as early as 6:15 a.m. \u2014 more than two hours before it opens.
By 7 a.m., roughly a dozen people were waiting by the entrance.
Space in the courtroom is limited, though staff have set up an overflow room where people can watch the proceedings on TV screens.
An earlier version of this story appears below: <\/em>
An Ontario judge is delivering her ruling in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada\u2019s world junior hockey team, saying she did not find the complainant’s testimony to be credible. 
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said Thursday that the Crown cannot meet its onus of proof for the charges in the case. 
She is still reading the reasons for her decision, including a lengthy recap of the facts of the case and testimony heard in court.
She hasn’t officially ruled on the charges against each player. 
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in an encounter that took place in a London, Ont. hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.
McLeod, who prosecutors allege was the \u201cringleader\u201d that night, has also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The players, who are now between the ages of 25 and 27, were in London at the time for a gala and golf tournament marking their championship victory.
Protesters gathered outside a packed London courthouse on Thursday morning, holding signs that signalled support for the complainant.
Jane Piper said she has experienced sexual violence herself, and it was an “emotional, powerful and difficult” day.
“I’m hoping that we’ll have justice today and that she feels, no matter what happens today, that she’s supported,” Piper said of the complainant.
Court has heard the complainant had sex with McLeod, whom she had met at a downtown bar earlier that night, in his hotel room \u2013 an encounter that was not part of the trial.
The charges relate to what happened after several other players came into the room, with consent a central issue in the case.
Prosecutors allege McLeod orchestrated a \u201ccampaign\u201d to bring his friends into the room to engage in sexual acts with the woman without her knowledge or consent.
The woman did not voluntarily consent to the sexual acts that took place in the room, the Crown argued, and the players did not take reasonable steps to confirm that she did despite circumstances that would call for additional caution.
The defence argues the woman actively participated in the sexual activity and was egging the men on at times, but later made up a false narrative to absolve herself of responsibility.
They argue she came to court with an agenda and exaggerated her level of drunkenness that night to support her account and explain inconsistencies in it.
McLeod, Hart and Dube are accused of getting oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube is also accused of slapping her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.
Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant in the bathroom without her consent, and Foote is accused of doing the splits over her face and \u201cgrazing\u201d his genitals on it without her consent.
Lawyers for McLeod, Hart, Formenton and Dube argue the woman consented to sexual acts with their clients, while Foote\u2019s lawyer argued he was fully clothed while doing partial splits over her body and didn\u2019t touch her at all.
Court heard McLeod sent a text to a team group chat shortly after 2 a.m. asking if anyone wanted a \u201cthree-way\u201d and listing his room number. Hart replied he was \u201cin,\u201d according to screenshots shown at trial.
He also texted another teammate, Taylor Raddysh, telling him to come to the room if he wanted a \u201cgummer,\u201d which Raddysh testified meant oral sex. McLeod made a similar comment to Boris Katchouk, another player who briefly stopped by his room, court heard.
McLeod did not mention any of these interactions to police in a 2018 interview, instead saying he had told \u201ca few guys\u201d that he was ordering food and had a girl in his room, and didn\u2019t know \u201chow guys kept showing up.\u201d
The woman was naked and drunk when men she didn\u2019t know started coming into the room, she told the court during more than a week of testimony.
The men seemed to be laughing at her as they discussed sexual acts they wanted her to perform, she said, and she felt her mind \u201cshut down\u201d as her body moved on \u201cautopilot.\u201d
Two teammates who were called as Crown witnesses, Brett Howden and Tyler Steenbergen, testified the woman asked the group if anyone would have sex with her, as did Hart, the only accused player to take the stand in his own defence.
When that was put to her in cross-examination, the woman said she didn’t remember saying such things, but that if she did, it was because she was drunk and had taken on the persona of a \u201cporn star\u201d as a coping mechanism.
The trial began in late April and was initially heard by a jury, but Carroccia twice discharged the panel and eventually the trial was switched to a judge alone to avoid having to start over a second time.
Nine witnesses testified, most of them remotely \u2013 including the complainant, who testified via CCTV from another room in the courthouse.
\u2014 With files from Natasha Baldin.
If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, a list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling can be found here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em>
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