The trial of five former NHL players accused of sexually assaulting a woman after a party for the Canadian national junior hockey team began Tuesday, more than six years after the alleged attack occurred.
The case has sent shockwaves across Canadian hockey, raising questions about toxic culture in the nation’s beloved sport and bringing scrutiny on police handling of an investigation involving high-profile athletes.
Five members of the Canadian team at the 2018 World Junior Championship were charged last year with sexual assault over an alleged June 2018 incident at a hotel in London, Ontario.
Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote — who all played in the National Hockey League — pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a London court, multiple Canadian media reported.
McLeod also faces a second charge of being a party to the offense — aiding or encouraging others to commit a crime.
Jury selection will precede the trial that is expected to last about eight weeks.
According to filings in a separate civil lawsuit, the victim had met the players at a bar and went with one of them to his hotel room where they engaged in consensual sex.
But without her knowledge, the player had also invited several of his teammates to the room where the alleged offenses took place.
The woman went to police immediately following the alleged incident, but the case was closed after an inital investigation in 2019.
It was re-opened after news organizations revealed in 2022 that Hockey Canada had quietly settled a civil lawsuit filed by the victim over the incident.
When criminal charges were filed last year, London’s police chief, Thai Truong, publicly apologized to the accuser.
“It shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive to (this) outcome,” he said.
Parliamentary hearings were held into claims of a cover up after Hockey Canada paid the woman several million dollars from a fund that was supported in part by fees paid by young Canadian hockey players.
The then-head of Hockey Canada, Scott Smith, and the organization’s entire board resigned in October 2022 following reports it used shady funds to pay off sexual abuse victims.
The federal government also temporarily suspended Hockey Canada’s funding.
