Capitals forward Taylor Raddysh testifies against his former 2018 World Juniors teammates

Charged with one count each of sexual assault are former NHLers Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Carter Hart and Alex Formenton. Michael McLeod has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one relating to aiding someone else in the offence. All defendants have plead 'Not Guilty'.

Today, former 2018 World Junior player Taylor Raddysh, now a member of the Washington Capitals, testified in court. Raddysh admitted to the court that he was "incredibly intoxicated" and that he couldn't remember many details from the night of the allegations, July 5th, 2018. Raddysh has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Raddysh recalls that he was invited into McLeod's room along with teammate Boris Katchouk and that the pair were only in the room four a total of two minutes. It's worth reporting that Katchouk has also not been accused of any wrongdoing.

So you were in there for a total of two minutes, maybe?” asked Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham, reading from the 2018 interview transcript.

“Yeah… not a long time at all,” Raddysh replied.

“So when you saw her did you say anything at all to her?” Cunningham continued.

“Not that I remember,” Raddysh said. “I don’t think I even really looked at her.”

“Do you remember anything being said to her or by her,” Cunningham said.

“No, I was talking to Boris and Mikey the whole time,” Raddysh said “I never heard her say anything.”

Raddysh told the interviewer in 2018 that the woman he saw in McLeod’s hotel room “seemed fine” and “seemed quite normal.” He said she was lying on the bed, had the sheets pulled up covering most of her body. Raddysh said he could “see her traps [trapezius muscles, which are muscles in the upper back and neck]” and could not tell whether she was wearing clothes under the sheets.

Reading from his 2018 statement, Raddysh said he fell asleep after he returned to his room after being next door in McLeod’s room. Raddysh said he woke up when Brett Howden and other teammates returned to the hotel around 4 a.m. on June 19, 2018. Howden, who was Raddysh’s roommate and has also not been accused of wrongdoing, entered and exited their room several times, Raddysh said, reading from his statement.

Reading from his 2018 statement, Raddysh said he heard “all the noise and stuff like that” coming from outside his room at the time.

“Could you tell the noise was coming from Mikey’s room?” Cunningham said, reading from the 2018 transcript.

“Yeah for sure there was talking and chattering,” Raddysh said. “Hooting and hollering kind of thing.”
Under cross examination, Raddysh testified that while he met with the Crown attorney on March 28, 2025 to prepare for his testimony, he had trouble recalling a number of details of that meeting.

Under cross examination, Riaz Sayani, one of Hart’s lawyers, asked Raddysh whether he remembered putting a sheet down on the floor of McLeod’s room for E.M.

“No,” Raddysh answered.

Lisa Carnelos, one of Dube’s lawyers, then asked Raddysh about his July 2018 interview. Raddysh told an investigator at the time that he was on FaceTime with one of his “buddies” when McLeod and Katchouk came and invited him to McLeod’s hotel room. That wasn’t true, Carnelos suggested.

“In fact, you were on FaceTime with your girlfriend who is now your wife. You just did that out of nervousness, right?” Carnelos asked.

“I guess you could say that,” Raddysh said. “At the time when I did the interview we were freshly dating. She is one of my good friend’s sisters. It was very uncomfortable…. I just referred to her as my buddy… I clarified that in a future interview with the London police.”

Julianna Greenspan, one of Foote’s lawyers, later asked Raddysh about his memories of the incident.

“I’m going to suggest that when you were in the room, you saw [E.M.] get up off the bed and walk around the room naked. Is that what happened? Do you accept that?” Greenspan asked.

“No,” Raddysh answered.

“I suggest that [E.M.] told police in 2018 that when you were in the room, she is naked on the bed exposed. Do you agree that is what happened, sir?” Greenspan asked.

“Sitting here today I don’t really remember that, but I didn’t state that in my transcript. I would for sure have remembered that… that would be pretty hard to forget.”

Last week, the court heard graphic descriptions of the alleged assaults that took place. Namely, Formenton and McLeod are accused of having vaginal sex with the victim without her consent, McLeod, Carter Hart and Dillon Dube are alleged to have obtained oral sex without the victim's consent, Dube is also accused of slapping the victim's behind without her consent and Cal Foote is accused... essentially... of "tea bagging" the victim without her consent. That is, where he 'grazes' his genitals over her face.

More from TSN investigative reporter Rick Westhead:

Lawyers also painted a detailed picture of how the evening began and how quickly things got out of hand.

Full details from Westhead's report for TSN:

Donkers told the jury that on June 18, 2018, E.M., who was then 20, went out to Jack’s Bar in London with a group of friends and consumed about eight alcoholic drinks over the course of the evening. While she was at the bar, McLeod and Dube were among the hockey players who surrounded E.M. on the dance floor, Donkers said.

Shortly after 1:20 a.m., McLeod and E.M. left the bar together and went to McLeod’s room – Room 209 – at the Delta Armouries Hotel in London where the hockey players were staying. Donkers said E.M. and McLeod engaged in consensual sex.

“Soon after that sexual act ended, the atmosphere in the room changed,” Donkers said. “[E.M.] will testify that she observed Mr. McLeod on his phone and she believed he was messaging people, but she did not know who or what he was messaging.”

Donkers said the jury would see copies of those text messages, “which include messages Mr. McLeod sent to his teammates in a group chat asking ‘who wants to be in a 3 way quick. 209- mikey.’”

“You will also hear that Mr. McLeod went into the hallway and invited people into his room, where [E.M.] still lay, naked, under the covers of the bed,” Donkers said. “Before long, more and more men began arriving in room 209. There were up to 10 men inside this standard-sized hotel room at different points in the night.”

Donkers said E.M. will testify that she felt drunk, surprised by what was happening, and uncertain how to react.

“You will hear from some witnesses that, at different times in the night, [E.M.] was offering to perform sexual acts or was asking whether anyone was going to have sex with her,” Donkers said. “And you will hear from [E.M.] that throughout the night, she was going along with what the men in the room wanted — what she felt that they expected of her — because she was drunk, uncomfortable, and she did not know what would happen if she did anything else.”

Donkers said that McLeod, Hart and Dube obtained oral sex from [E.M.], that without her consent, Dube slapped [E.M.] on her naked buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else, that, without her consent, Formenton had vaginal sex with [E.M.] in the bathroom, and that without her consent, Foote “did the splits over [E.M.]’s face while she lay on the ground, grazing his genitals over her face.”

“We anticipate you will hear evidence that at the end of the night, Mr. McLeod sexually assaulted [E.M.] once more by vaginally penetrating her without her consent,” Donkers said.

“…We anticipate you will hear [E.M.] testify that when she was in this hotel room, at age 20, intoxicated, and a group of large men that she did not know were speaking to each other as if she were not there, and then they started telling her to do certain things, she did not feel that she had a choice in the matter. On occasion, she tried to leave the room, but the men coaxed her into staying. And so, she found herself going through the motions, just trying to get through the night by doing and saying what she believed that they wanted.”

Donkers said jury members would hear testimony about two brief videos that were taken by McLeod of [E.M.] towards the end of the night, in which [E.M.] made statements including “it was all consensual.” 

Today, the court reportedly saw video evidence from the night of the allegations.

The videos, which do not have sound, show members of the team arriving at Jack’s Bar at about the same time as the alleged victim. The players, many of whom wear T-shirts and backward baseball hats, have their I.D.’s checked before walking into the establishment.

According to TSN lead investigative writer Rick Westhead, videos of the alleged assault will also be revealed to the court:

Donkers told the jury that London police were given five videos in 2022 from the cell phone of Batherson. Donkers also said McLeod provided police with two videos in 2019 that were filmed in his hotel room on June 19. One of the videos was filmed at 3:25 a.m., and the other was filmed at 4:26 a.m.  

Police were also provided with one continuous Snapchat video in three segments from McLeod’s phone, Donkers told the jury.

Needless to say, these videos may provide the prosecution with the "Smoking Gun" that they need in such a case.

Stay tuned.