'I am saying my truth,' E.M. says under contentious questioning at trial of ex-world junior hockey players | Breaking News and Top Canadian Stories

'I am saying my truth,' E.M. says under contentious questioning at trial of ex-world junior hockey players — Complainant asked about her behaviour at world junior hockey sex assault trial E.M. defends her account of sexual assault after world juniors during c...

Complainant asked about her behaviour at world junior hockey sex assault trial

E.M. defends her account of sexual assault after world juniors during cross-examination

E.M. details alleged abuse by ex-world juniors players: ‘Just a joke to them’

Complainant testifies in former world junior hockey players’ trial

NHL player testifies at sex assault trial of former world junior teammates | Hanomansing Tonight

Video evidence, NHLer testimony raise questions in world junior sexual assault trial

E.M. pushes back on Savard’s suggestions that she never mentioned the men talking about her crying.

Throughout her statement to detectives in 2018, E.M. talks about crying, and so the men telling her to stay would have seen her tears, she says.

She tells court it was really difficult for her in the days afterwards to explain what had happened to her.

“The reason you invented this story of the men saying, ‘Don’t let her leave, she’s crying’ … You want it to be more likely that the jury will see this as worse than it was,” Savard says.

“I am saying my truth, my story,” E.M. says. “I”m not trying to make it seem any worse than it had. I think [the jury] could read it in the [police] statement and still see it was bad … I have no reason to come up with a worse version.”

In 2018, E.M. testifies, she was asked by police, “Did they do anything to make you stay?”

She says she told officers the men said, “Come on, don’t leave.”

Savard says the words, “She’s crying, don’t let her leave” have a much more “criminal” or “severe” implication, and E.M.’s original statement is more innocuous.

“I stand by it,” E.M. says, pushing back on Savard. “I was just trying to get the words out. They [the men] didn’t want me to leave and they made sure I didn’t by walking me back to the bed sheet.”

She tells Savard she was trying to explain the details to police in her own words, three days after that night.

The back-and-forth between Savard and E.M. continues.

“When did you realize in the last seven years that they said, “She’s crying, don’t let her leave,” Savard says, adding she twisted a “little nugget” of what happened and made it sound more criminal.

“I want to talk to you about crying,” Savard says, referring to her time in the hotel room.

While trying to leave the room, at least twice, she has testified, she heard someone say, “Don’t let her leave — she’s crying.”

Savard says the first time E.M. ever mentioned any of the men saying that was on Monday, when she was being cross-examined by David Humphrey, McLeod’s lawyer.

E.M. says she’d never been asked that before, including in 2018 when the police were investigating.

“I’m sorry, being 20 and having just gone through that, I didn’t think to get into every word they said,” E.M. says.

She says she didn’t think she’d be physically stopped from leaving, but felt the men did not want her to go.

Savard has E.M. read two paragraphs from her civil lawsuit against Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and eight unnamed defendants, known as John Doe 1-8.

The two paragraphs summarize that she left Jack’s bar in London with John Doe No. 1, went to a hotel room with him, engaged in sexual acts, and then other John Doe defendants were invited without her knowledge to the room.

After that, paragraphs E.M. read say they engaged in sexual acts with her, and that constituted sexual abuse over the next several hours.

Lawyers are still discussing an issue.

The jury has been taken out of the room for the conversation, so we can’t report on what’s being said.

We will update this page once we’re back underway.

The proceedings for today have started.

The lawyers and judge are having a discussion about something without the jury being here, so it’s covered by a publication ban, meaning we can’t report what they’re talking about.

Supporters of E.M. gathered outside again this morning, shouting “Shame! Shame!” when some of the players and their lawyers walked into court.

We expect Savard to ask one more question this morning, and then the lawyers for Alex Formenton to begin their cross- examination.

Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, ended her cross-examination yesterday by questioning E.M. about two instances in which men were misidentified as potentially being involved in the alleged sexual assault.

E.M. said she did not intentionally mix up the players and she was becoming “flustered” when Savard continued to press her about the issue.

In the end, E.M. began to cry and asked to adjourn proceedings early for the day.

Defence lawyers representing players on Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team will continue to cross-examine the complainant today.

Over the course of the week, counsel has grilled E.M. about her own conduct in London, Ont., in 2018. They have asked her how much alcohol she drank, how she danced at Jack’s bar and how she was “acting” in the hotel room during the alleged assault.

The lawyer representing Carter Hart, one of the accused, said her client and his teammates “assumed” E.M. consented to the group sexual activity at the Delta hotel because she was behaving in a certain “way” and putting on a “performance.” E.M. said she might have appeared to be OK in the room, but her body was on “autopilot” as she struggled to grasp what was happening to her.

E.M. said the men should have known she wasn’t agreeing to the sexual activity because she was outnumbered and heavily intoxicated.

The players – Hart, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton and Michael McLeod – are on trial for sexual assault. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Audience Relations, CBCP.O. Box 500 Station AToronto, ONCanada, M5W 1E6

Toll-free (Canada only):1-866-306-4636

It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges.

Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered onCBC Gem.