The female complainant in the high-profile world junior sexual assault trial is back on the stand Monday to face more questions from defence lawyers.
The 27-year-old woman, whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, has been under cross-examination for what is now a week straight; E.M., as she’s known in court documents, began testifying on May 2, and defence questioning started late last Monday.
Cross-examination has been at times tense as lawyers for Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote each have the chance to question E.M., who has been appearing virtually inside the London, Ont., courtroom.
All five men have pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex in June 2018. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
Dan Brown, lawyer for Formenton, will continue his cross-examination of E.M. when court resumes. He began his questioning on Thursday afternoon, and suggested at the start of court Friday that part of the reason why cross-examination is taking so long is that E.M. is not answering questions directly.
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E.M., who has elaborated often in her responses, replied that it was her opportunity to “stand up for myself.” Brown interjected, and Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia asked E.M. to answer the questions directly.
Brown zeroed in Friday on gaps in her memory of the night she met McLeod and his teammates at a bar in downtown London on June 18, 2018. Court has heard that the team was in town for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and E.M. was out with friends at the time they met.
E.M., who was 20 at the time, said she was drunk and not of clear mind the night of the alleged incident.
She pushed back against Brown’s suggestion that she was embarrassed and ashamed of the choices she’d made that night.
After being with McLeod and his teammates at the bar, E.M. would go on to have consensual sex with McLeod in his room at the Delta hotel in the early morning hours of June 19.
She said Friday that she made the choice to drink and dance at the bar, not to “have them do what they did back at the hotel.”
— with files from The Canadian Press
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