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TSN Senior Correspondent

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

LONDON, ONT. – Michael McLeod, one of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team on trial for sexual assault, lied to a police investigator when he said he had no clue why his former teammates kept showing up to his hotel room during the early-morning hours of June 19, 2018, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham said in court on Wednesday.

Cunningham made the assertion during her closing statement in the high-profile trial, suggesting to Justice Maria Carroccia that McLeod lied in the police interview to help further a false narrative he was crafting – that E.M., the complainant in the case whose identity is protected by a publication ban, asked him to invite his teammates back to his room for group sex.

“[E.M.] did not make an affirmative voluntary choice to engage in those sexual acts, therefore she did not consent,” Cunningham said. “[The defendants] did not take reasonable steps in the circumstances to actually confirm her consent.”

The men who engaged in sex acts with E.M. did so recklessly in the absence of  “sincere discussion about her desires and her limits,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham played for the court a brief portion of McLeod’s interview with now-retired London police sergeant Stephen Newton on Nov. 17, 2018.

McLeod told Newton during that interview that he didn’t know why players were arriving to his room. At 2:10 a.m. on June 19, 2018, McLeod sent all of his teammates a message that said, “Whose up for a 3 way quick. 209-mikey.”

Five minutes later, at 2:15 am, McLeod texted teammate Taylor Raddysh a message that said, “Come to my room if u want a gummer” (Gummer is slang for oral sex.)

During the November 2018 interview, Newton asked McLeod why players were showing up at his room.

“Mr. McLeod says, ‘I don’t know, it’s a complete mystery to me,’” Cunningham said. “Detective Newton asks, ‘Were you sending any of those messages?’ and Mr. McLeod says, ‘No I was not. I just sent a message to a few people saying there was food. I did mention that there was a girl, but that’s all.’”

McLeod also told Newton that he and other players were “shocked” when E.M. allegedly began inviting them to have sex with her.

“It’s not just that he didn't mention that he sent those texts. He outright lies to Detective Newton,” Cunningham said. “We know from the texts that he was inviting people for sexual activity… it is completely a lie when he says he was surprised things took a sexual turn.”

While London police closed their initial investigation in February 2019 without laying charges, the case was reopened in July 2022, and the five defendants were charged in January 2024.

London police did not obtain any of the text exchanges until 2022.

Cunningham argued that Carroccia can use any lies she establishes not only to determine the credibility of defendants but also as circumstantial proof of guilt.

McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton and Callan Foote are charged with sexually assaulting E.M. in McLeod’s hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, following a Hockey Canada ring ceremony to celebrate their 2018 world junior championship months earlier. McLeod faces a second charge of party to the act. The players have all pleaded not guilty.

The Crown has alleged that after E.M. 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. testified during the trial that as many as 11 players were in the room over the course of the evening and that some players spat on her and slapped her. At one point, one of the players suggested she put golf balls in her vagina and asked aloud if she “could take” an entire golf club inside of her, E.M. testified. She has said she went into an automaton state and did whatever she had to do to get out of the room safely.

Cunningham delivered her closing submission after lawyers for each of the five defendants made their closing statements. The defence lawyers will also have the opportunity to respond to Cunningham’s closing.

Cunningham also asked Carroccia to consider E.M.’s text message exchange with McLeod on June 20, a day after the alleged incident. McLeod had become aware that E.M.’s mother had contacted police.

“I was ok with going home with you,” E.M. wrote to McLeod. “It was everyone else afterwards that I wasn’t expecting. I just felt like I was being made fun of and taken advantage of.”

Two minutes later, McLeod responded to E.M., writing, “I understand that you are embarrassed about what happened...”

“It’s a very telling reframing of the last sentence of her message...He doesn’t express any surprise or disagreement with this at all,” Cunningham said. “He doesn’t say, ‘What are you talking about?’... If he knew that wasn’t true, we would reasonably expect to him say, ‘You asked me to invite them in.’”

Cunningham showed Carroccia a timeline of the events in McLeod’s hotel room that she argued helped support the argument that E.M. did not ask to engage in group sex with McLeod and his teammates.

Both Boris Katchouk and Raddysh testified that after they entered McLeod’s room at about 2:30 a.m., they saw E.M. in bed with the covers pulled up over her body. The players testified that E.M. remained quiet and did not participate in conversation except for asking for a bite of pizza, Cunningham told the court.

“She did not offer or ask for any sex with them,” Cunningham said. “Instead of saying, ‘Hey guys, would you like to do this? Would you like to do that?’ she stays in bed silent with the covers pulled up.”

After Katchouk and Raddysh left McLeod’s room at about 2:35 a.m., E.M. went into the bathroom, Cunningham said, adding that when she emerged naked from the bathroom roughly 10 minutes later, a number of other players were in the room.

“[E.M.] begins to perceive she is in a dangerous situation,” Cunningham said. “It is after this moment she describes essentially being on autopilot.”

Cunningham pointed out to Carroccia that Katchouk and Raddysh were the only Team Canada players who saw E.M. in McLeod’s hotel room who were not part of a group text on June 26, 2018, when 11 players texted one another after they learned that Hockey Canada, and possibly the London police, were investigating the alleged incident.

“The Crown submits you should accept without reservation [Katchouk’s and Raddysh’s] testimony about how [E.M.] was behaving when they saw her,” Cunningham said. “They have no reason to lie about this... [E.M.] was doing nothing either verbally or with her actions to communicate she was at all interested in engaging in sexual activity with them.”

Cunningham repeatedly highlighted the text messages McLeod sent to his teammates. She said that his offer of a “3 way” was an offer to his entire team for group sex.

“He is sending it to 19 players, he’s not vetting, he’s not saying ‘Reach out to me if you're interested in this.’ He's telling everyone... giving his room number,” Cunningham said, adding that even after McLeod sent the text messages and phoned Hart, he intercepted Katchouk in the hallway, knocked on Raddysh’s door and invited them into his room “trying to drum up more business.”

If it was true that E.M. wanted to offer sex to all of the players, she wouldn’t have remained tucked under the covers when Katchouk and Raddysh were in the room, Cunningham said.

“It doesn’t make sense. Why, when the first two guys come in, is she completely silent and not offering any sex, and then when other people come in, she's behaving in a completely different way?” she said.

“It is his plan… just as E.M. says. Even though Mr. McLeod is lying to Detective Newton about many things... we see moments where the truth bleeds through and Mr. McLeod reveals, really, he was hosting some kind of group sex party for his teammates.”

Cunningham again highlighted McLeod’s interview with Newton in which McLeod said “We made a rule. No videos we made sure no one was taking videos… be smart about this.”

McLeod was taking charge in the room and setting ground rules because “this was his idea,” Cunningham said.

"He set this up,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, and Dube’s lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, made their closing statements in the trial.

Carnelos said the June 26, 2018, group chat was not evidence of collusion but instead reflected a group of nervous and naïve young men trying to understand what was happening.

"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.”

“This is the most lame attempt at collusion I’ve seen in my life,” Carnelos said sarcastically. “These are not sophisticated adults. They’re young men.”