The female complainant in the high-profile sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team continues to be under intense cross-examination.
Defence lawyers for the five players will continue questioning the now 27-year-old woman, known as E.M. in court documents, inside a London, Ont., courtroom Wednesday.
David Humphrey, who is representing Michael McLeod, suggested during cross-examination Tuesday that the woman, who has been appearing virtually and whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, wanted a “wild night” and sought to keep the night going after having consensual sex with McLeod in his hotel room in June 2018.
Humphrey suggested the woman, who has testified she was drunk that night, was “flirtatious” with some of the men who came into the room. The complainant, who was 20 at the time, rejected those claims.
Lawyers for the other players will also have the chance to cross-examine the complainant.
McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. The charges stem from what Crown prosecutors allege was non-consensual group sex in McLeod’s hotel room.
Court has heard that many members of the team were in town at the time for a gala celebrating their gold-medal win earlier that year.
Since the first took the stand last Friday, the complainant has offered graphic testimony about the moment she met McLeod and his teammates at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018, and the alleged sexual assaults that happened afterwards in McLeod’s room at the Delta hotel.
The complainant was recorded on multiple videos in the room that were shown in court last week, saying in one of them, “It was all consensual.” The Crown has said it plans to argue that those videos, allegedly taken by McLeod, are not evidence that the complainant did, in fact, consent.
— with files from The Canadian Press