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Five Members of 2018 Team Canada World Juniors Ice Hockey Team have been acquitted in a sexual assault case after a judge in Ontario said prosecutors could not fulfill the evidence onus.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Callan Foote pleaded with all guilty of sexual assault in a meeting that took place in a London, Ontario, hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.
The players, now between 25 and 27, were in London at the time of a gala and golf tournament that marked their World Cup in juniors earlier that year.
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Canadian fans celebrate in the first period of a 4 Nations Face-off Hockey game against Finland 17 February 2025 in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said she did not find the complainant’s testimony credible.
The victim met the players at a bar in the center of London after a Hockey Canada event on June 18, 2018. The victim was later invited to a hotel room where she was allegedly assaulted sexually.
The woman testified in May that she was naked, drunk and scared when four of the men appeared unexpectedly in her room at the Delta Hotel London Armories and felt that the only “safe” opportunity was to do what they wanted. Prosecutors claimed the players did what they wanted without taking steps to make sure she voluntarily consented to sexual acts.
Team Canada, after beating Sweden in the gold medal game in the IIHF World Junior Championship at the KeyBank Center 5, January 5, 2018 in Buffalo, Ny Canada beat Sweden 3-1. (Kevin Hoffman/Getty Images)
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“I took the choice to dance with them and drink at the bar. I didn’t make the choice to get them to do what they did back at the hotel,” she testified.
Defense attorneys crossed her for several days and suggested that she actively participate in or initiate sexual activity because she wanted a “wild night.” Two short videos of the complaints taken by McLEOD The Night of the Encounter were played in court. In one, the woman says it was “all consensus”, though she told the court that this was not how she really felt.
All players went on unlimited leave and no one is on an NHL list or has an active contract with a team in the league.
Fans hold the Canadian flag. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
The NHL launched its own investigation in 2022. Officials promised to release the conclusions, although Commissioner Gary Bettman would depend on what the league can say in February.
