LONDON — Holding a white towel against her body, a young woman smiles and looks into the camera.
"It was all consensual," she says before asking if she's being filmed.
"You are so paranoid ... I enjoyed it," she adds. "I am so sober that’s why I can’t do this right now.”
The short video, taken at the Delta hotel in London, Ont., at 4:26 a.m. on June 19, 2018, was one of a series of clips shown in quick succession Wednesday at the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.
The five accused, who were on Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, have all 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.
In another video, taken about an hour earlier, someone asks the woman twice if she is "OK with this." Both times, she agrees.
Prosecutors had referred to the videos, which they said were taken by McLeod, in their opening submissions to the jury on Monday.
At the time, prosecutor Heather Donkers urged jurors to listen carefully to the complainant's testimony later in the trial regarding "what was happening before and during the recording of these videos."
Donkers added the Crown plans to argue the videos are not evidence that the complainant did, in fact, consent.
Jurors were also shown Wednesday a screenshot of a group chat between members of the world junior team around 2:10 a.m. that day. In it, McLeod asks if anyone wants to be in a "three-way," then follows up with his hotel room number and Hart replies, "I'm in."
Prosecutors allege the complainant went with McLeod to his hotel room after they met at a downtown bar earlier in the night. Several members of the team were there after attending a Hockey Canada gala, court has heard.
At the hotel, McLeod and the complainant had sex — an encounter that is not part of the trial, court heard.
Afterward, McLeod invited others into the room, with as many as 10 present at some point, the Crown alleges. In the hours that followed, a number of sexual acts took place without the woman's voluntary consent, the prosecution alleges.
CAUTION: The following paragraphs contain graphic content some readers may find disturbing.
The Crown alleges McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained oral sex from the complainant without her consent at some point during the night, and that Dube slapped the complainant's buttocks without her consent while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else.
Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant in the bathroom without her consent. Foote allegedly did the splits over the complainant's face while she lay on the ground, grazing his genitals over her face, without her consent.
The Crown alleges McLeod vaginally penetrated the complainant again at the end of the night, without her consent. It's also alleged he assisted and encouraged his teammates to engage in sexual acts with the complainant knowing she had not consented.
Also on Wednesday, court watched security video from the lobby of the hotel and from the bar where some of the players and the complainant were earlier that evening.
The complainant, who was 20 at the time, cannot be identified under a standard publication ban.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2025.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
