Agent says former World Junior player not sure what he saw in London hotel room – TSN.ca

Content Warning: The following article contains sexual assault notices.

A player from Canada’s 2018 World Juniors ice hockey team, who was present in a hotel room in London, Ontario at the time of an alleged sexual assault, told police during their initial investigation that he was not involved in what took place and left the room uncertain he was a witness, said the player’s agent TSN in an interview.

The agent said his client was invited by another player to come to a room at the Delta London Armories Hotel in the early morning of June 19, 2018.

“My guy got a text from one of his teammates that they were having a pizza party, so he went upstairs,” the agent said. “He didn’t know how to process what was going on when he saw what was happening in the room. He does not know whether it was consensual group sex or a sexual assault.

“It’s true that he didn’t step in and say stop. You can blame him for not intervening. What would you do as a teenager in the same situation? Is that something he should lose his career and reputation for?”

The agent, who requested anonymity to protect his client’s identity, said the player left the room after about 10 minutes.

The player was questioned by London police in late 2018 after a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room on June 19, 2018 by eight ice hockey players – at least some of whom were members of the 2018 Canada World Juniors team. While London police closed the case without charge in February 2019, they have since reopened the investigation.

The agent said London detectives are now planning face-to-face interviews with players who were in town for the Hockey Canada Foundation event, which took place the night before the alleged attack.

“My husband has already spoken to the police [in 2018] and he has been absolutely honest with them, and he will be honest when the police speak to him again,” the agent said. “As far as I know, the police will be traveling over the next few weeks to interview players in person.”

Neither the woman in the case nor the players allegedly involved have been publicly identified.

A spokesman for the London police refused to answer specific questions about the investigation.

“As this is an active criminal investigation, we are unable to comment further on the matter,” the spokesman wrote in an email to TSN on Monday. “The relevant information will be shared once the investigation is complete.”

The sexual assault allegations have plagued Hockey Canada in recent months, raising questions about the organization’s leadership.

After TSN reported in May that Hockey Canada had settled a lawsuit filed by the woman weeks earlier, a parliamentary committee began investigating the organization’s response to the allegation.

Hockey Canada officials testified before the committee on June 20 that players on the 2018 World Juniors team initially had an opportunity to decline to participate in an investigation into the allegations. Hockey Canada hired Danielle Robitaille, an attorney with Toronto law firm Henein Hutchison LLP, to lead the investigation.

Robitaille testified on July 26 that she interviewed 10 of 18 players who were in London at the time of the alleged attack and that, although she dropped her investigation in 2019 because the complainant refused to go with her speak, the file has now been opened again. Hockey Canada has announced it will name players who refuse to cooperate with the Robaille investigation.

Hockey Canada also remains under scrutiny after it admitted it created a fund called the National Equity Fund to use player registration funds to pay for lawsuits, including those related to sexual assault claims, without giving hockey parents the kind to notify the fund. The organization has pledged that it will not use money from this fund to settle cases of sexual assault in the future.

Hockey Canada officials also said in July that after its board of directors agreed during a closed meeting, Hockey Canada would file the lawsuit this spring — on behalf of itself, the Canadian Hockey League and those allegedly involved in the incident Player – settle the vote not documenting in his minutes of the meeting. The organization also did not disclose the settlement to lawyers representing the players allegedly involved.

Several sponsors have severed ties with Hockey Canada, the federal government has frozen its funding over the scandal, and board chairman Michael Brind’Amour has resigned.

In addition to the London police and Hockey Canada, the NHL is also investigating the alleged assaults. Halifax Police are also investigating an alleged sexual assault involving players from the 2003 World Juniors team after three sources told TSN they had seen video showing several players attacking an unresponsive woman.

A lawyer representing several players under investigation said in an interview with TSN in July that their clients told London Police in late 2018 that any physical contact between players and the woman was consensual.

“The players say that in this case the woman encouraged other players to participate,” said the lawyer.

Lawyers for the players said two videos taken with a cell phone during and after the incident, as well as 35 text messages sent between the alleged victim and one of the players, are evidence that any contact between the woman and the players was consensual has been.

The woman has denied this and said she provided London Police with an eight-page statement, five pages of photos and four and a half pages of text messages.

Shayan Shaffie, a Toronto defense attorney who represents clients accused of sexual assault, said in an interview that police are unlikely to charge a player who stayed in the hotel room if they did nothing to stop one encourage or prevent sexual assault discourage woman from doing so.

“Generally, criminal law is not concerned with people stopping a crime in progress unless they have a special duty of care,” said Shaffie, who is not involved in the case. “There is no penalty for not behaving as a Good Samaritan.”

However, Shaffie said if a player did anything to “support and support” an attack, it could result in them being prosecuted.

“If they assisted or encouraged sexual assault by locking a door or encouraging peers to engage in sexual assault, or preventing the complainant from leaving the room, that could expose a player to liability,” Shaffie said.