Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers.

Two more police interviews played in the world junior sexual assault trial as a London Police detective’s testimony continued.

As the Crown's questioning of Steve Newton, a now-retired detective with the London Police Service, continued on Wednesday, interviews Newton did in 2018 with Alex Formenton and Dillon Dube were played before the court. 

While Formenton’s interview was in person and captured on video, similar to Michael McLeod’s video shown on Tuesday, Dube’s was a phone interview.

McLeod, Formenton and Dube are three of the five former Canadian world junior players – the other two being Carter Hart and Cal Foote – who each face a charge of sexual assault in relation to an incident from June 2018 where a woman, referred to in court documents as E.M., alleges she was sexually assaulted in a London, Ont., hotel room. McLeod also faces an additional sexual assault charge as party to the offense, and all five men have pleaded not guilty to their charges.

Formenton’s interview from November 2018 played first. According to the video footage, he reiterated what former teammates Brett Howden and Tyler Steenbergen said in their testimonies earlier in the trial. 

Newton asked Formenton what E.M’s behavior was like in the Delta Armouries hotel room during the early morning of June 19, 2018. Formenton provided some examples of things he remembered her saying to him and his teammates.

“Is anybody gonna bang me, or am I gonna do it all?” Formenton recalled E.M. saying.

Formenton said that after this, he told E.M. he would have sex with her but that he “didn't want to do it in front of the guys.” He said the two then went into the bathroom together and engaged in sexual intercourse and oral sex. Formenton said she seemed very willing and happy throughout her time in the hotel room with the men.

“She was saying that she had a lot of fun, that she was OK with what went on and that it was all consensual,” Formenton said.

Formenton additionally said that E.M. didn’t seem overly intoxicated, saying “ she was talking pretty fine and all that stuff.”

In E.M.’s testimony on May 12, she denied a suggestion that she led Formenton to the bathroom, saying the player followed her as she went to the bathroom herself.

Dube’s interview covered many of the same points but had no mention of him slapping E.M. on the buttocks, an allegation discussed extensively in the court proceedings to this point. 

One of Dube’s lawyers, Julie Santarossa, asked Newton later during cross-examination why he hadn’t discussed it, despite it being mentioned to him in a previous interview with Foote, which wasn’t heard in court. 

“Maybe I overlooked it. There was a lot going on,” Newton said. “There were a lot of events and a lot of acts. I might have missed that.” 

Like with Formenton, Dube also said E.M. was very much asking for attention and sexual acts, even saying that he “felt like she wanted to be there more than us.” He even mentioned that he had initially brought a golf club with him to McLeod’s room, and that E.M. asked, “Are you gonna play golf or f--- me?”

On May 12, E.M. said she had no recollection of saying that, nor did it sound like something she'd say.

Dube did say in the interview he got oral sex from E.M. for roughly 10 seconds, but he said he realized, in the moment, that it was a bad idea and that he was pretty drunk, so he and Foote left the room together at that point. He did say, however, that during his time in the room, E.M. had been continuously asking the men for sex and “chirping” them.

“I'm putting my clothes on because no one will bang me. You guys are p-----s,” Dube recalls E.M. saying.

While E.M. denied egging on the players earlier in the trial, she also said on May 6 she felt like she had no choice to leave the room and decline anybody’s sexual requests. 

During the defense’s cross-examination of Newton, one of McLeod’s lawyers questioned Newton about his initial investigative process when the alleged sexual assault was reported. 

Newton said he initially contacted Danielle Robitaille, the lawyer and private investigator Hockey Canada hired to conduct its investigation, and provided his contact information for any of the players wanting to participate in an interview.

McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey, also asked Newton about when his investigation ended in February 2019. Newton said after speaking with the players he was able to interview, he assessed that E.M. was not too drunk to consent and that, from what he gathered, she seemed to be “actively participating in the sexual acts.”

Formenton’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, also questioned Newton over the process of his investigation, suggesting it must have been surprising that some of the players came forward, which Newton agreed with. Brown continued, saying that Formenton and his teammates didn’t have to do the interviews, but they did, and Formenton just wanted to “clear his name.”

Brown concluded his cross-examination by diving more into what Newton specifically asked the players about.

“You weren’t asking about what words were said, during, or after, they had intercourse – you’re not probing in that way because you’re not looking for that in the interview,” Brown said. “You’re looking for information about whether E.M. had the capacity to consent, correct?”

Newton agreed. Brown then suggested that by the time Newton finished interviewing the players, he had gathered all the information he needed to make “an assessment about the case.” Newton agreed with this as well.

The trial is expected to continue on Thursday, during which the Crown will likely decide if it will call another witness to testify or not.