The complainant in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case “was actually quite upset†when a London, Ont., police detective broke the news to her in 2022 that the force was taking a second look at its initial investigation that had led to no criminal charges, the detective testified Monday as the high-profile trial wrapped up.Ìý
“I felt pretty bad because it felt like ... I got the sense that I was opening up some wounds that she was trying to close,†said Det. Lyndsey Ryan, who was tasked in the summer of 2022 with leading the reopened probe.Ìý
“I think it was a bit overwhelming. She wasn’t expecting this.â€
Ryan was the last witness to testify at the trial, with closing arguments expected to begin next Monday. Of the five former members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team on trial, only player Carter Hart ended up testifying in his own defence, telling the court that his sexual contact with the complainant was consensual.Ìý
The complainant had alleged that she was sexually assaulted by multiple members of the team in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when she was 20 years old. London police initially declined to lay any criminal charges in February 2019.
As the Star reported last month, lead detective Steve Newton felt the video surveillance footage of the complainant walking unaided in heels contradicted her assertion she was too intoxicated to consent. Cellphone videos taken of the complainant in the hotel room, in which she says “it was all consensual,†also led Newton to have doubts that a crime had been committed, as he wondered in his report whether the complainant had been an “active participant†in the hotel room.Ìý
The force decided to review its initial investigation amid intense public pressure in 2022, after TSN reported that Hockey Canada had settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million lawsuit filed by the complainant that year against the organization and eight unnamed John Doe players.Ìý
London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to “a resurgence in media attention†— with
London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to “a resurgence in media attention†— with
London police ultimately charged Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Cal Foote in early 2024 with sexual assault, though at the time remained silent on why they had reopened their investigation. The force acknowledged in court filings it was as a result of public scrutiny, noting “the media attention surrounding this event is significant.â€Ìý
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia also pressed Ryan on Monday at the players’ trial to answer why the force was taking a second look.Ìý
“We just wanted to make sure any loose ends were tied up if there were any, so it was a review to make sure everything was done properly,†Ryan testified.Ìý
Carroccia continued: “A review because of the Hockey Canada resolution of the civil suit?â€Ìý
Ryan replied: “Yes, exactly.â€Ìý
Ryan was actually called to the stand by Formenton’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, who just briefly asked her whether his client had a criminal record. She confirmed he doesn’t.Ìý
Brown indicated to the court he will not be calling his client to testify in his own defence, especially given the fact the Crown has already entered Formenton’s police interview in 2018 as an exhibit, in which he maintains he engaged in consensual intercourse with the complainant in the hotel room bathroom. A similar reason was given last week for why McLeod won’t be testifying.
Lawyers for Dube and Foote also confirmed Monday they will not be testifying. The only player to testify in his own defence is Hart, who said he asked the complainant for oral sex and she said yes.Ìý
Court records show that London police approached the case from a different angle in 2022: that although the complainant never said no and didn’t physically resist, she only went along with the sexual activity because she was intimidated to be in a room full of men she didn’t know, and the players should have known she wasn’t actually consenting.Ìý
One of the few new pieces of evidence in 2022 was a statement the complainant told Ryan about, which she had prepared for separate probes being conducted by Hockey Canada and the NHL. The complainant told Ryan that she believed the statement would “clarify†some of those organizations’ questions.
The players were “compelled†to sit for an interview with Hockey Canada. But they weren’t told the investigator knew police wanted access to her
The players were “compelled†to sit for an interview with Hockey Canada. But they weren’t told the investigator knew police wanted access to her
The complainant acknowledged in her testimony at the trial this year that the statement is riddled with errors and was actually written by her civil lawyers.Ìý
Ryan said on Monday she thought there were “important†differences between what the complainant told London police in 2018 and what she wrote in her statement in 2022, while confirming she never re-interviewed the complainant as part of the reopened probe.Ìý
Hart’s lawyer, Riaz Sayani, asked Ryan if that’s because police felt the new statement was an “effective substitute†for a police interview.Ìý
“No,†Ryan said. “The main reason was we thought we had everything we needed from her and a re-interview would have retraumatizing.â€
She said it was “possible†she would have re-interviewed the complainant if she didn’t have the statement. Sayani pressed Ryan on whether she thought this statement was “helpful†in making the case for criminal charges against the players.Ìý
“Not sure if I would say it was helpful,†Ryan said. “It did clarify some points. It didn’t hurt either.â€
Ryan did agree with Sayani’s suggestion that the statement provided a “new interpretation†of what happened in that hotel room in 2018. While Ryan felt the complainant had blamed herself in her 2018 interview with police, in her 2022 statement she seemed to understand that what had happened was not her fault.Ìý
“I believe this change can be attributed to her having had four years to think about the events and understand she was not to blame and that her acquiescence did not equal consent,†Ryan wrote in an excerpt of her report read in court.Ìý
Ryan also never spoke with the work friends who were with the complainant at Jack’s Bar the night she met McLeod. She later returned to his hotel room where they had consensual sex, only for multiple men to come in afterward, prompted by texts from McLeod.Ìý
Sayani suggested that those friends could have provided a different version of events than what the complainant was saying, such as the fact that she actually bought most of her drinks herself rather than the players, and that her friends were messaging her at the bar trying to find her, asking if she wanted help to get away from McLeod, but she said she was fine. Ryan agreed the complainant never told her any of that.Ìý
Sayani put to Ryan that if the complainant had told her, then police may have wanted to interview those friends to get a better sense of the complainant’s state of intoxication and efforts to get away from McLeod.Ìý
“Correct, potentially, yeah,†Ryan said.Ìý
