Howden briefly breaks down crying during testimony in London hockey case

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

LONDON, ONT. – Vegas Golden Knights forward Brett Howden broke down crying while testifying Thursday about text messages he sent to a former Team Canada teammate in June 2018 when they learned Hockey Canada was investigating an alleged sexual assault that took place a week earlier following a golf and gala event in London, Ont.

Howden, who is 27, was testifying about messages he exchanged with Taylor Raddysh on June 26, 2018, about a week after an alleged incident in Michael McLeod’s hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018.

Howden became emotional as he spoke about his family and about his memories of telling his father about the alleged incident.

McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote are accused of sexually assaulting a then-20-year-old woman in McLeod’s hotel room. McLeod is facing a second charge as being a party to the act.

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.

Lawyers for the defendants have alleged that any sexual activity that took place was consensual. The players have pleaded not guilty.

E.M. has alleged during her testimony that Dube slapped her buttocks without her consent while they were in McLeod’s hotel room.

On Thursday, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham began a past recollection voir dire application – basically a trial within a trial – to have Howden’s text messages with Raddysh admitted as evidence.

“Dude, I’m so happy I left when all the s--t went down,” Howden’s June 26, 2018, text message said. “Haha. Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl’s ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.”

Cunningham has argued that Howden was being truthful when he wrote that message and it should be admitted.

Howden, who testified remotely from Las Vegas, has not been accused of wrongdoing. 

Cunningham asked Howden to review the 10 pages of transcripts of text messages he wrote to Raddysh, including the one about Dube slapping E.M.

“Were you describing something you knew to be true at the time?” Cunningham asked.

“Yeah, I had no reason to lie,” Howden answered.

“Do you believe you were being truthful in those messages?” Cunningham asked.

“Yes, I believe I was being truthful,” Howden answered.

Dube’s lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, has argued that Howden’s text message about the alleged slapping should not be admitted.

Howden agreed with Carnelos that he could have been distracted while he was texting Raddysh, and that they were not having a formal conversation. He also agreed that some of the texts could have been inaccurate.

Carnelos read aloud the first few texts between Howden and Raddysh on June 26, 2018, in which Raddysh told Howden that Hockey Canada was investigating an alleged sexual assault.

Howden testified that he was nervous and afraid.

“You’re scared of your dad, right?” Carnelos asked.

“Yeah, very,” Howden answered. “That was one of the hardest things to go through, telling my family.”

“Not only did you have to explain this to your family, at some point… you’re going to have to explain to your girlfriend, right?” Carnelos asked.

“Exactly, it all wasn’t easy,” Howden answered, confirming that he had married a woman who was his girlfriend in 2018.

“You’ve just had your second child with her, congratulations,” Carnelos said.

At that point, Howden broke down sobbing. He declined an offer from justice Maria Carroccia to take a break to collect himself.

Carnelos suggested to Howden that he was “spitballing” in the text exchange with Raddysh, was careless with the facts, and was asking for feedback from a friend about the narrative he planned to share about the night of the alleged incident.

In one text message to Raddysh that Carnelos read loud, Howden wrote: “I’ll just say I was in there and then just came back to my room when things got really weird.”

“You’re worried about what you’re going to say to people and how you’re going to say it,” Carnelos said.

“What I’m saying is what I know from me,” Howden answered. “It’s not like I was going lie to my dad… it was just a hard time. I wasn’t sure how to approach it with my parents.”

Carnelos asked Howden whether he was worried in 2018 that his professional future would be affected by the alleged incident.

“Honestly I didn’t think that far out,” Howden testified. “I was mostly worried with Hockey Canada and their standards and their code of conduct. I never thought it would come to what it has now. I was worried about what Hockey Canada would think of the fact there was a girl there. That was my main worry.”

Justice Carroccia has not yet decided whether to admit Howden’s text message about seeing Dube slap E.M.