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

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

London, Ont.– A defence lawyer involved in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team challenged the complainant's version of events Tuesday, suggesting that after she had consensual sex with Michael McLeod, she lay naked on a bedsheet on the floor of his hotel room surrounded by a number of men and demanded they have sex with her.

David Humphrey, a defence attorney for McLeod, spent all of Tuesday dissecting E.M.’s version of events on June 18, 2018, the night of the alleged sexual assault.

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. Humphrey said at the end of court on Tuesday that he is probably done his cross-examination. 

E.M. has testified that she left Jack’s, a downtown London bar, 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 asked E.M. if she remembered a number of men in McLeod’s room, some of whom said, “This girl’s f---ing crazy.” 

“I’m going to suggest the reason they were saying that is because you were saying to them, ‘Come on, someone have sex with me. You guys are p-----s.’ … Isn't that what happened?” Humphrey asked. 

E.M. answered that she couldn’t say definitely whether she had said that.

“I don't recall doing that at all but maybe that was what that comment was in relation to,” she said. “Again, I just think that speaks to my level of intoxication and how out of my mind I was. They knew that, they could see that, and they still did what they did.” 

“So where are we now? Maybe you did say something like, ‘Someone have sex with me, right?’” Humphrey asked. 

“That doesn’t sound like something I would say,” E.M. answered. “I don’t know for sure and I can only tell you what I remember and I don’t have a memory of speaking like that.”

Most of Humphrey’s questions centred on E.M.’s interactions with McLeod. 

E.M. testified that after she was sexually assaulted by other players, she gave oral sex to McLeod while other players watched and then had unprotected sex for the second time with him in the shower, where she also gave him oral sex for a third time. 

Humphrey read from E.M.’s statement to police in 2018 where she said she was particularly upset with McLeod for events at the end of the evening, when McLeod did not offer to call her a cab and asked her if she had any sexually transmitted infections. 

“You were offended that he asked if you were sure you didn’t have any STDs?” Humphrey asked. 

“That’s correct,” E.M. answered. “I didn’t understand. I thought that it was just shocking behaviour after shocking behaviour. I couldn’t believe someone would be like that… I didn’t like what it implied.” 

Earlier on Tuesday, Humphrey suggested to E.M. that after she finished having consensual sex with McLeod, she asked him to text his teammates and invite them to come and have a “wild night” with her.

“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. 

Humphrey suggested that E.M. knew McLeod was an “elite” and “loaded” hockey player when she drank and danced with him at Jack’s 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 at the bar. 

“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 at Jack’s.

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."