Alleged victim in 2018 World Junior case gets grilled by Carter Hart’s attorney, ends up in tears

The trial for five players on Team Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey continued on Wednesday as second of five defence lawyers has begun cross-examining E.M., the complainant in the sexual assault trial of five ex-members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.

On Tuesday, during the first day of cross examination, the poor alleged victim was ridiculed and humiliated on the stand when counsel questioned E.M.’s fear and asking why she did not just leave the London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. E.M. explained how she felt “intimidated” as multiple men “towered over her” and felt she had “no choice” but to do as the players said. She also rejected earlier suggestions she “liked the attention” at the bar before the hotel.

It only got worse on Wednesday when Megan Savard, the defense lawyer for Carter Hart, suggested she was a willing participant who wanted “the party evening to continue.”

E.M. has defended her account that she did not consent to sexual activity with multiple men in a London, Ont., hotel. Hart is accused of obtaining oral sex from E.M. without her consent in a London, Ont., hotel room.

Counsel also questioned the complainant about her boyfriend – now fiancé, suggesting that the allegations were cover story for him.

“I am suggesting why you’re so resistant to agree that you were an active participant is because that would be a relationship-ending event,” Savard says.

Savard also asked E.M. about how much she had to drink and questions whether she was actually as drunk as she says, and went on to suggest that she behaved as “a porn star” while on “autopilot” that night.

“Another way you adopted the persona of a porn star is you masturbated for their viewing pleasure, so to speak,” Hart’s lawyer says.

E.M. responds, “Correct.”

“I was not acting like myself,” E.M. adds.

“You were acting like a porn star?” Savard asks.

“Yes, I felt that was the thing they wanted. They were trying to recreate a porn scene,” E.M. says.

She says the men weren’t physically forcing her, but they were joking and she didn’t feel like she had a choice.

“That was the role they were forcing me into. They weren’t letting me leave.”

E.M. explained that she was still drunk in the room and doesn’t remember being recorded for the “consent videos,” which she said she would recall if she had been sober. E.M. had to reiterate that her behaviour didn’t represent emotions in the hotel room, adding that the men in the room should have known that she wasn’t OK.

“The fact that I’m asking for it speaks to my level of intoxication,” she says. “They knew how much I was drinking that night. There were way more of them than there were of me. Nobody thought, ‘This isn’t a good situation.’ I feel like they really should have known.”

It was obvious that E.M. was getting “flustered” by Savard’s questions. When asked if she had trouble distinguishing between the men, E.M. agreed with Savard that she had trouble distinguishing between the men because “a lot of them look alike.” She has said several times that she was worried about misidentifying the men in the hotel room because she knows these are serious accusations, but she was trying to be helpful to police.

Savard then asked how E.M. misidentified one player, bringing up the name of Jonah Gadjovich, who was also on the 2018 world junior team. He currently plays for the NHL’s Florida Panthers and does not face any criminal charges in the world juniors case.

Gadjovich’s name was mistakenly added to an appendix in E.M.’s civil lawsuit in 2022, though he is not accused of participating in the alleged assault. E.M. was therefore accused by Savard of not taking great care with who she was naming.

“I wasn’t intentionally trying to do that,” E.M. says.

The confrontation left E.M. in tears as Savard kept pressing on what she said about Gadjovich in the Hockey Canada statement and the statement of claim.

“I don’t know what you’re asking here,” E.M. says.

She begins crying, saying it’s been a long day and she doesn’t understand what Savard is getting at or asking.

Here is the link to the breakdown of the cross-examination by CBC. Warning, this can be tough to read:

On Monday, E.M. had testified how never consented to group sex with McLeod’s teammates. She described feeling “degraded” and “humiliated,” as players spit on her, slapped her, and encouraged her to insert golf balls and golf clubs into her vagina. On Tuesday, she denied that she wanted a “wild night” with a rich hockey player.

Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Michael McLeod have all pleaded not guilty.