Michael McLeod being interviewed by London Police on Nov. 17, 2018. McLeod is one of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team on trial for alleged sexual assault.London Police Service
The now-retired London police sergeant who led the initial investigation into an alleged sexual assault by members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team began his interview with one of the accused players by saying that he did not believe he had grounds to lay charges.
The retired officer, Stephen Newton, was called as a Crown witness on Tuesday at the players’ criminal trial in London, Ont.
Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham began by playing for the court the entirety of Mr. Newton’s interview with accused player Michael McLeod, which took place five months after the alleged assault occurred.
Mr. McLeod, along with Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote, is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting the complainant, known publicly as E.M., in a hotel room on June 19, 2018, after a Hockey Canada gala. Mr. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault. Each has pleaded not guilty.
The video aired in court on Tuesday marks the first time the trial has heard an account from any of the accused players about what they say transpired at the Delta Armouries hotel.
In the interview, Mr. McLeod lays out a version of events that at times appears to directly conflict with key assertions made by the defence throughout the trial. Most significantly, Mr. McLeod never tells the officer that the complainant is the one who asked him to invite his teammates to the hotel room for a “wild night,” which is the scenario that Mr. McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey, put to E.M. during cross-examination.
The video is also a window into the initial police investigation, which Mr. Newton closed in February, 2019, without charges. London police reopened the case in 2022 after TSN reported that E.M. had filed a lawsuit against some members of the 2018 world junior team as well as Hockey Canada, the sport’s national governing body. Hockey Canada settled the case without the knowledge of the players for an undisclosed sum.
Mr. Newton met Mr. McLeod for the interview at Mr. Humphrey’s law office in Toronto in November, 2018. It runs about an hour and 15 minutes long and throughout the footage, Mr. Newton strikes a conciliatory tone and often does not press Mr. McLeod on his evidence, including apparent contradictions.
Excerpts from a video interview Michael McLeod gave to London police on Nov. 17, 2018. He is one of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team on trial for the alleged sexual assault of a woman in a London hotel room on June 19, 2018. The players have pleaded not guilty.
The Globe and Mail
The interview began with Mr. Newton saying: “It was reported to me as a sexual assault, okay? And I just wanted to be clear to you, I’ve done some investigating to – to the best I could to this point – and I don’t feel I have identified the necessary grounds for charges of a sexual assault. I don’t feel I’ve gotten to a point that I, I know that a sexual assault by technicality occurred, okay?”
He went on to assure Mr. McLeod that he had no plans to arrest or charge him. Mr. Newton said that if that changed at any point during the interview “I’ll stop and let you know” before proceeding.
In Mr. McLeod’s telling, he met E.M. at Jack’s bar in London after a Hockey Canada event during which his junior team’s win at the world championships earlier that year had been celebrated. He recalled buying her a drink and that she bought him one, “and maybe someone else bought a round for a bunch of us.” (E.M. was aggressively challenged during cross-examination about memories she had of someone buying her and the players drinks.)
Mr. Newton told Mr. McLeod that E.M. had said there was “touching to, like groin regions” and that “self-admittedly, she said she was doing some of the touching too.” Mr. McLeod said he wouldn’t remember that.
The officer didn’t press further.
Mr. McLeod said that at some point, he and E.M. “mutually” agreed to go back to his hotel where they had consensual sex. In terms of E.M.’s level of intoxication, Mr. McLeod said she was obviously affected by the alcohol but “she wasn’t drunk, like hammered by it. Like she could walk fine, talk fine.”
After they had sex, Mr. McLeod told the officer he took out his phone to order some food from Uber Eats – mozzarella sticks and chicken wings. Then some of his teammates began showing up at the room. About 20 minutes after he ordered, Mr. McLeod said he went to the lobby to pick up the food and when he returned E.M. was performing oral sex on Mr. Hart.
“She seemed completely fine with it,” Mr. McLeod told the officer. He went on to say that E.M. would say things such as “I want to do this” and “this is what I want tonight.”
Asked Mr. Newton: “How did the guys know to come back to the room?”
“I told them I ordered some food,” Mr. McLeod said. “And ah, I told them, like, I had a girl in the room.”
Text message Crown says is crucial to Hockey Canada sex-assault case ruled inadmissible
Later in the interview, Mr. Newton asked Mr. McLeod if it’s possible his teammates were coming to the room because they thought a woman was providing sexual favours.
“I mean, like, I don’t know how guys kept showing up because I don’t remember,” he said.
Mr. Newton asked if players may be contacting each other about the girl using their phones. He asked Mr. McLeod if he ever sent any of “those messages.”
“No,” Mr. McLeod replied, reiterating that he told teammates there was food and a girl in the room. Mr. Newton didn’t press on this apparent contradiction.
(Court has been shown a screenshot of a text message that Mr. McLeod sent to the team group chat that read: “who wants to be in a 3 way quick. 209–mikey.” But in 2018, Mr. Newton was not aware of this text message. It is unclear what efforts London police took to determine whether any messages existed.)
Mr. McLeod tells Mr. Newton about two short videos court has seen that were shot in the room on the night in question, in which E.M. says she is “okay with this” and that everything is “consensual.”
Mr. McLeod told the officer he took the footage because: “This is like a – a weird situation that, you know, like I wasn’t expecting was going to happen with all, you know, with all the guys coming in.”
He said he took the video because he was “worried something like this would happen.”
The officer asked Mr. McLeod if E.M. looked like she was an active participant.
“Yes she did. She looked like she was kind of leading the way and kind of asking for it,” Mr. McLeod said.
Mr. McLeod told the officer that: “I legit asked her, like, at least five times throughout the night.”
At the end of the interview, Mr. Newton asked Mr. McLeod: “So if this opportunity ever happened again, what do you think you would do?”
“Probably just shut it down right away,” Mr. McLeod said.
“Because it gets open to a whole bunch of interpretation by both – all the parties involved, right?” Mr. Newton said.
Mr. McLeod agreed.