An Ontario decide acquitted 5 former members of Canada’s world junior hockey workforce on Thursday of their sexual assault case, saying the complainant’s allegations lacked the credibility wanted to justify the costs.
Superior Courtroom Justice Maria Carroccia stated prosecutors couldn’t meet the onus of proof for the costs towards Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.
The gamers’ identities had been made public after they had been charged in early 2024. On the time, 4 of them performed within the NHL — Dube for the Calgary Flames, Hart for the Philadelphia Flyers, and McLeod and Foote for the New Jersey Devils. Formenton had beforehand performed for the Ottawa Senators earlier than becoming a member of a Swiss workforce. All went on indefinite depart and none is on an NHL roster or has an energetic contract with a workforce within the league.
Carter Hart arrives on the Superior Courtroom of Justice in London, Ontario, July 24, 2025.
Reuters/Carlos Osorio
All 5 gamers had pleaded not responsible to sexual assault in an encounter that befell in a London, Ontario, lodge room within the early hours of June 19, 2018. Years of hypothesis concerning the allegations — fueled by a lawsuit settlement, parliamentary hearings and revived investigations by the police and Hockey Canada, together with an NHL investigation — all preceded a posh trial earlier this yr that included a mistrial and the dismissal of the jury, leaving the decision to Carroccia.
Carroccia defined her reasoning for the acquittals intimately over the course of 5 hours, highlighting the complainant’s “tendency to blame others” for inconsistencies in her allegations. She additionally stated the lady went to “great lengths” to level out that she was actually drunk by means of the course of the night time, however that isn’t supported by surveillance video from a bar and lodge that night time and the testimony of others.
McLeod was additionally acquitted — and pleaded not responsible — to a separate rely of being a celebration to the offense, an uncommon utility of a cost that’s extra usually seen in homicide circumstances.
The gamers, who at the moment are between the ages of 25 and 27, had been in London on the time for a gala and golf match marking their championship victory.
The girl testified in Might that she was bare, drunk and scared when 4 of the lads confirmed up unexpectedly in her room on the Delta Lodge London Armouries and felt the one “safe” choice was to do what they wished. Prosecutors argued the gamers did what they wished with out taking steps to make sure she was voluntarily consenting to sexual acts.
“I made the choice to dance with them and drink at the bar, I did not make the choice to have them do what they did back at the hotel,” she testified.
Protection attorneys cross-examined her for days and urged she actively participated in or initiated sexual exercise as a result of she wished a “wild night.” Two brief movies of the complainant taken by McLeod the night time of the encounter had been performed in court docket. In a single, the lady says it was “all consensual,” although she informed the court docket that wasn’t how she actually felt.
Protesters gathered exterior a packed London courthouse on Thursday morning, holding indicators that signaled assist for the complainant.
The general public didn’t study of the allegations for years. Police closed their preliminary investigation with out expenses in early 2019, however the complainant sued Hockey Canada in 2022. The group settled the lawsuit amid intense scrutiny that price it sponsors, however police reopened their investigation.
The NHL launched its personal investigation in 2022. Officers pledged to launch the findings, although Commissioner Gary Bettman stated in February that might rely upon what the league can say given the authorized proceedings.
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