One of five hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside a London, Ont., hotel room asked some of his teammates for advice before heading toward the bathroom with her, another player testified Tuesday.
Alex Formenton made a comment along the lines of “should I be doing this?” to a few of the other players in the room as he and the woman were on their way, Brett Howden told the court.
The woman had been asking the men in the room to have sex with her but no one was taking her up on it, he testified, though two received oral sex.
Howden said he didn't remember how the woman and Formenton ended up together or if anyone answered Formenton directly.
"Everyone kind of just left it up to him,” said Howden, who currently plays in the NHL for the Vegas Golden Knights. “No one was telling him not to do it because it seemed like she was excited that she was taking him to the bathroom.”
No one spoke to the woman, who was next to Formenton, Howden said, nor could he remember if she said anything.
Formenton and his former teammates Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in connection with an encounter that took place in the early hours of June 19, 2018.
McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
All of the accused were members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team, and the events that are the focus of the trial took place as many on that year's roster were in London for a gala celebrating their championship win.
Prosecutors allege McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube slapped her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.
Foote is accused of doing the splits over her face and grazing his genitals on it without her consent. Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant without her consent inside the bathroom.
Earlier in the trial, the woman testified she met a group of men including McLeod at a downtown bar where she was drinking with co-workers. She had at least eight shots, a vodka soda and a beer at the bar, as well as two coolers at home before going out, she said.
She and McLeod left the bar together and went back to his hotel room, where they had sex, she said. That encounter is not part of the trial.
Afterward, a number of men came into the room while the woman was still naked, she said. She was drunk and scared, and felt she had no choice but to go along with what they wanted, she said. The woman engaged in sexual acts while on "autopilot," she said.
Defence lawyers have suggested the woman instead actively participated in and even initiated the sexual activity.
She was the one who asked McLeod to bring his friends into the room and repeatedly asked the men if anyone would have sex with her, at times taunting them, the defence suggested during more than a week of cross-examination.
The woman, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, maintains she doesn't remember saying such things, and the words don't sound like any she would use. If she did ask the men to have sex with her, that would be an indication that she was out of her mind from intoxication, she said.
Formenton's lawyer, Daniel Brown, suggested last week the woman pulled his client into the bathroom to have sex after he said he didn't want to do it in front of the others.
The woman, meanwhile, described someone following her when she got up to go to the bathroom, and said she resigned herself that sex was going to happen.
Also on Tuesday, defence lawyers finished cross-examining Tyler Steenbergen, another player who testified he was in the room for a short time.
The trial went through a major upheaval last week when the judge dismissed the jury over concerns that some jurors harboured negative feelings toward the defence.
Rather than having a mistrial, the Crown and defence agreed to continue the trial with a judge alone, meaning witnesses who previously testified – including the complainant – will not need to do so again.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2025.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
