Content warning: This story includes allegations of sexual assault.
LONDON, Ontario — The woman identified as “E.M.” in court documents, who is the complainant in the sexual assault trial involving five former NHL players, testified on Monday that she felt “scared” and “numb” while in a hotel room surrounded by men on the night of the alleged incident in June 2018.
E.M. gave her testimony via CCTV from a separate location within the courthouse, responding to questions from assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham.
She stated that after engaging in consensual sexual activity with Michael McLeod, she noticed him using his phone. Shortly thereafter, she reported that other men began entering the room while she was still unclothed.
E.M. recalled, “I remember feeling uncomfortable and wasn’t sure what was happening.”
According to her testimony, a bedsheet was placed on the floor, and she was instructed to perform sexual acts on three men present in the room. E.M., who had testified on Friday about consuming 12 alcoholic drinks that night, said this was when she began to disassociate from the events.
She described a sensation of “separating from my body,” feeling her mind detach and “float” as she watched everything unfold. She felt a complete lack of control or choice. She told the courtroom, “I shut down and let my body do what it needed to do to be safe. It seemed like the only safe thing to do was give them what they were wanting.”
Towards the end of the night, when she attempted to leave the hotel room at the Delta Armouries, she felt pressured to remain. E.M. testified, “I felt like I had no option. They kept bringing me back.” She added that she was crying and “couldn`t think straight with the pressure and everyone in the room.”
The court was shown two phone videos. In one, E.M. states, “it was all consensual.” She testified she has no memory of recording these videos but, after viewing them, felt McLeod was “trying to get” her to say the events were consensual. She explained that at that point, her “mind is disconnected from my body and what I’m actually doing. I’m saying what they’re wanting me to say and wanting to hear from me. I don’t think it reflected how I was feeling.”
Subsequent security camera footage showed E.M. exiting the hotel lobby at 4:46 a.m. and appearing to talk on her phone before entering an Uber shortly after.
She testified that the video shows her speaking on the phone with her best friend.
She told the court, “I was really upset with what had happened, and I needed some comfort and for someone to be with me so I wasn’t alone at that point.”
During cross-examination, David Humphrey, counsel for McLeod, questioned E.M. about her memory of the night and her interaction with McLeod on Instagram in the following days, suggesting she could have blocked him instead of accepting his communication request.
E.M. responded, “I wasn’t happy to hear from him, I was so upset about what happened,” when Humphrey suggested she was pleased to hear from McLeod.
“I’m going to suggest you were trying to be friendly with him with that response,” Humphrey posited. E.M. replied that her response stemmed from her inherent friendly nature.
She stated, “I was afraid to talk to him, especially after everything.”
Humphrey also challenged whether it was E.M. or her mother who initiated the decision to press charges. E.M. testified that she initially did not want to press charges, preferring that the accused be “spoken to” so they understood the wrongfulness of their actions and that it would not recur with anyone else.
Regarding her visit to London police days after June 18, 2019, she said she “didn’t take going to the station lightly.” She wanted to provide as much detail as possible, finding it “a difficult situation talking to a stranger about what happened.” She added, “I wanted to get the story out but it was really hard to talk about.”
Michael McLeod, 27, faces two counts of sexual assault, including one related to aiding in the offence. Dillon Dube, 26, Cal Foote, 26, Alex Formenton, 25, and Carter Hart, 26, are each charged with one count of sexual assault. All five players have entered pleas of not guilty to their respective charges.
For the second consecutive morning of the trial, approximately 20 demonstrators gathered outside the courtroom entrance, chanting and displaying signs such as, “The system is on trial too,” “Justice for survivors,” and “We are so proud of you E.M.”
Cross-examination of E.M. by David Humphrey is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
Editor’s note
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