Publisher’s note: The following story contains graphic content that some readers can find disorders. The reader’s discretion is recommended.
Prosecutors allege five former members of Canada junior hockey team “Did what they wanted” to a young woman in disgust in a hearing a hotel room in June 2018 after having consensual sex with one of them.
Prosecutor Heather Donkers gave the jurors an overview of the evidence that the crown plans to present as sexual assault The trial of Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Fote and Alex formenton began on Wednesday.
The players all pleaded not guilty of sexual assault and McLeod also pleaded not guilty to an additional accusation of having gone to the offense of sexual assault.
In her opening declaration, Donkers said that the complainant – who could not be identified under a standard publication ban – had met McLeod, Dube and a few others in a bar in the same evening as many team members attended a gala in the city.
She said that the complainant should testify that she had about eight glasses at the bar, and later went with McLeod in her hotel room, where they had consensual sex.
The crown said that “the atmosphere in the room changed” shortly after, and McLeod invited several teammates to the room while the complainant was naked under the covers.
In a group conversation with team members, McLeod asked: “Who wants to be in a quick three?” said the crown. He also went in the corridor and invited people to the room, she said.
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“Before a long time, more and more men have started to arrive in room 209”, with up to 10 present at one point, said Donkers in court.
The complainant should testify that she felt drunk, surprised and uncertain about how to act, the crown said.
Some witnesses may testify that the complainant sometimes proposed to perform certain sexual acts and asked if someone was going to have sex with her, said Donkers.
The complainant should say “she was going to handle with what the men in the room wanted” and what she felt expected of her because she was “drunk, uncomfortable and she did not know what would happen if she did something,” said the prosecutor.
Each of the five players would have had sexual contact with the complainant without her voluntarily accepting these specific acts, said Donkers.
It is alleged that McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained the complainant’s oral sex at a given time of the night, and Dube would also have slapped the complainant’s buttocks when she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.
Form would have penetrated vaginal by the complainant into the bathroom. Fote would have made the divisions on the complainant’s face while she was lying on the ground, scrapping her genitals on her face.
The crown alleys that McLeod entered vaginal route complaining to the end of the night, without its consent. It is also alleged that he had helped and encouraged his teammates to engage in sexual acts with the complainant knowing that she had not agreed.
The crown provides that the jurors will not intend that the complainant said no to specific sexual acts or that she resisted physically, but she will hear that she thought that she had no choice.
“She found herself to go through requests, just trying to spend the night by doing and saying what she thought she wanted,” said Donkers in court.
She said the jurors expect to hear that the accused took no measure to ensure that there was an affirmative consent, but “has just done what they wanted”.
“This is a case on consent. And just as important, this is a case on what is not consent,” she said.
The court hears the testimony of a police officer who was involved in the investigation in 2022.
The trial should last about eight weeks.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press