The defense counsel in the world junior sexual assault trial finished presenting evidence Monday morning.

The trial is off for a week and is set to resume on June 9, when the Crown and defense are expected to provide their arguments and submissions.

After Carter Hart finished his testimony and cross-examination on Friday, fellow accused men Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote were not called to testify in court. Michael McLeod did not provide evidence either, since a 2018 interview with a detective had already been played in court. Dube and Formenton's interviews with police in 2018 are also evidence in the trial already. That makes Hart the only accused player who testified.

The five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team pleaded not guilty to a charge each of sexual assault. McLeod faces an additional sexual assault charge as party to the offense.  The charges connect to a June 2018 incident in which a woman, referred to as E.M. due to a publication ban, alleges she was sexually assaulted in a London, Ont. hotel room following a Hockey Canada gala. 

Despite the defense teams for Formenton, Dube and Foote saying their clients would not testify, Formenton’s lawyer called on London Police Service detective Lindsey Ryan to take the witness stand. Ryan was the detective who led the second police investigation of the sexual assault allegations in 2022.

While on the stand, lawyer Daniel Brown asked Ryan about the 2022 investigation, including how E.M. reacted when the case reopened.

“She was actually quite upset,” Ryan said. “I felt pretty bad because… I got the sense that I was opening up some wounds that she was trying to close.”

Brown also asked Ryan why one of the friends who accompanied the complainant to Jack’s Bar in London wasn't interviewed as part of the investigation. Phone messages between E.M. and her friend from the night of June 18, 2018, and the subsequent morning weren’t reviewed, either. 

Ryan said E.M. expressed she did not believe that interviewing her work friend or reviewing her phone messages would provide anything of value to the investigation. 

Ryan also said she believed in the complainant’s right to privacy, and that “her anonymity was important to her.”

One of Hart’s lawyers, Riaz Sayani, delved into the complainant’s recollection of the events in 2018 versus 2022. 

Sayani suggested that in 2018, E.M. expressed uncertainty in who was at fault in the alleged incident to police, but in 2022, she seemed more certain that she was not at fault for what happened in the hotel room. 

Ryan agreed there was a shift in her mindset, but it was likely due to the passage of time between the two investigations.

“I believe this change can be attributed to her having four years to think about the events and understand that she was not to blame,” Ryan said. “And her acquiescence did not equal consent.”

Next Monday, the defense and Crown are expected to tell the presiding judge, Justice Maria Carroccia, what judgment she should make and why. This could include summarizing the law, relating evidence to the law and countering the other side’s arguments.