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Pre-trial motions in advance of this spring’s highly anticipated Hockey Canada sex assault trial began Monday morning in a London courtroom.
Three of the five accused – Michael McLeod, 26, Dillion Dubé, 26, and former London Knights star Alex Formenton, 24 – arrived at the London courthouse with their lawyers early Monday for the hearing.
The lawyers for the other two accused, Cal Foote, 25, and Carter Hart, 26, were in the courtroom to represent them.
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All five are charged with sexual assault. McLeod is facing a second sexual assault charge as a party to the offence.
Before any motions began, Acting Regional Senior Justice Bruce Thomas, the presiding judge, reiterated that there is a sweeping publication ban on the evidence at the proceedings.
Three weeks have been set aside for the motions.
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All five accused were members of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2018 world junior hockey championships and were in London in June 2018 for a fundraising gala in celebration of the win.
The complainant in the case is a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted in a London hotel room after meeting several men at a Richmond Row bar and going to the hotel with one of the men for consensual sex.
An initial London police investigation was closed in 2019, but was revived last year after public outrage that Hockey Canada quietly settled a $3.5-million civil action with the woman.
All five men went on to National Hockey League careers. At the time they were charged, McLeod and Foote were with the New Jersey Devils, Dubé was with the Calgary Flames, Hart was a goalie with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Formenton was playing in Switzerland after a stint with the Ottawa Senators.
They were placed on leave by their teams and the four NHL players were not offered new deals when their contracts expired last summer. Two of the accused, McLeod and Dubé, signed contracts to play with the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League.
Their anticipated eight-week jury trial is slated to begin on April 22.
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