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

The Crown began its closing arguments on Wednesday in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, arguing that the complainant never told Michael McLeod she wanted his teammates to come to the room for “group sex.”

After the defense finished its closing submissions, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham began with a PowerPoint presentation. Her main focus on Wednesday was on McLeod.

McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote are the former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team facing charges of sexual assault. These charges are in relation 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.

All five men have pleaded not guilty to their charges, with McLeod pleading not guilty to an additional charge as a party to the offense.

Cunningham suggested to the presiding judge, Justice Maria Carroccia, that the defense’s narrative that E.M. was the one up for a “wild night” was false. 

She also said the complainant “did not make an affirmative voluntary choice to engage in sexual activity,” and that regardless of whether E.M. had the capacity to choose or not, she did not choose and therefore did not consent.

Cunningham also aimed to prove to Carroccia that the complainant was not the one wanting the sexual acts to continue, despite what other witnesses had said.

“I will be asking your honor to not accept the evidence put forward by some of the witnesses in this case that (E.M.) was the sexual aggressor in room 209,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said McLeod lied to then-London Police detective and Crown witness, Stephen Newton, in a 2018 interview by saying he had no idea why the other men entered the room. When Newton asked him if he had sent the text message asking who’s up for a “3 way” and the text to Taylor Raddysh that told him to come to his room if he wanted oral sex, McLeod said he didn’t.

“I just sent a message to a few people saying there was food,” McLeod told Newton in 2018. “I did mention there was a girl, but that’s all.

Cunningham said McLeod’s story that E.M. unexpectedly asked for sex and that the men were shocked, as multiple player witnesses said they were in testimony, is part of his narrative to Newton.

"That's the narrative that Mr. McLeod is putting forward in that interview, because that's the narrative that paints him and his friends in the best light and paints (E.M.) in the worst light,” Cunningham said. “And if he's going to say that he was stunned and shocked when she starts proposing sexual acts, which is what he does say to detective Newton, he can't also say, ‘Well you know, she actually said she wanted me to invite people over, you know, for the group sex.’ ”

Another argument that Cunningham made involved the testimonies of two player witnesses in the trial, Boris Katchouk and Washington Capitals right winger, Taylor Raddysh, who were members of the 2018 world junior team. She said their testimonies were consistent, that they had no reason to lie and that the judge should accept their testimony about how E.M. behaved when they saw her.

Raddysh and Katchouk said in their testimonies that during their brief time in the room, which was prior to when the alleged sexual assault occurred, they saw a woman lying under the covers on one of the beds in the room. 

Cunningham said this totally goes against McLeod’s narrative, as if E.M. was the one asking for men to come to the room for sex, then she wouldn’t have just been lying under the blankets when two men entered.

“If that theory were true, the evidence of Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh makes no sense at all,” Cunningham said.

She then said that what she believes actually happened was that McLeod invited the men himself, without the complainant’s knowledge, and even went as far as to leave the room and knock on the door of Raddysh to, as Cunningham put it, “drum up some business.”

Hockey Canada Sexual Assault Trial Judge Sets Verdict Date As Defense's Closing Arguments Continue Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers.

Defense Finishes Its Closing Submissions

Prior to Cunningham taking the podium, Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, provided her closing submissions. 

Like the other defense lawyers had done, Greenspan pointed out inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony and previous statements, primarily in relation to Foote’s alleged nude splits over the face of E.M.

Greenspan pointed out that in the complainant’s 2018 interview with Newton, she mentioned a man doing the splits over her face, but not that the man wasn’t wearing clothes. 

When Greenspan addressed this in her cross-examination of E.M., the complainant said she didn't feel comfortable telling a male detective that the man who did the splits was naked. But Greenspan said she doesn’t believe this explanation.

“She didn’t say it in 2018 because the person was not naked,” Greenspan said. “Her explanation is nonsensical.”

The trial is expected to resume on Thursday with the continuation of the Crown’s closing arguments.