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Five members of the Ice Juniors Juniors 2018 Hockey team 2018 have been acquitted in a case of sexual assault after a judge in Ontario said that prosecutors could not fulfill the responsibility of the evidence.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Callan Foots declared themselves innocent of sexual assault in a meeting that took place in a hotel room in London, Ontario, in the early hours of June 19, 2018.
The players, now between the ages of 25 and 27, were in London at that time for a gala and golf tournament that marked their World Juniors championship earlier that year.
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Canadian fans celebrate during the first period of a hockey game in front of the 4 nations against Finland on February 17, 2025 in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Kupa)
The judge of the Superior Court, Maria Carroccia, said that she did not consider credible the demanding testimony.
The victim met with the players in a bar in downtown London after a hockey event in Canada on June 18, 2018. The victim was later invited to a hotel room where she was supposedly assaulted sexually.
The woman declared in May that she was naked, drunk and scared when four of the men appeared unexpectedly in her room at the Delta Hotel London Armories and felt that the only “safe” option was to do what they wanted. The prosecutors argued that the players did what they wanted without taking measures to ensure that she was voluntarily consented to sexual acts.
Canada’s team poses after beating Sweden in the Gold Medals game of the IIHF World Junior Championship in Keybank Center on January 5, 2018, in Buffalo, New York, Canada beat Sweden 3-1. (Kevin Hoffman/Getty images)
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“I made the decision to dance with them and drink at the bar. I did not make the decision to make what they did at the hotel,” he testified.
The defense lawyers interrogated her for days and suggested that she actively participated or started sexual activity because she wanted a “wild night.” In the Court two short videos of the plaintiff took by McLeod were played on the night of the meeting. In one, the woman says she was “all consensual”, although he told court that it was not like he really felt.
All players continued with an indefinite license, and none is on a NHL list or has an active contract with a team in the league.
Fans hold the Canadian flag. (Panagiotakis/Getty Images mines)
The NHL launched its own investigation in 2022. The officials promised to publish the findings, although Commissioner Gary Bettman said in February that it would depend on what the League could say given the legal procedures.
