Jury dismissed: Hockey players’ sex assault trial to continue with judge alone

The sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team will continue with a judge alone after an Ontario Superior Court judge discharged the jurors this morning.

Justice Maria Carroccia made the ruling at the trial taking place in London, Ont. and will preside over the trial alone rather than start it over with a new jury.

The Canadian Press has reported that “jurors in the case were dismissed after one of them submitted a note to the judge saying some panel members felt defence lawyers for one of the accused were making fun of them.”

The trial began late last month and has heard evidence from the female complainant, who testified for nine days, and others, including witnesses from the evening of the alleged assaults.

Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Callan Foote, Alex Formenton and Carter Hart have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.

A statement from Alex Formerton’s legal team — Daniel Brown and Hilary Dudding — read that the decision to discharge the jurors was a “regrettable development” for their client and stated that he “very much wanted to be tried by a jury of his peers and has now lost that opportunity.”

“In short, a juror came to somehow believe that our courtroom demeanor was disrespectful of her. This was a unfortunate misinterpretation. No defence counsel would risk alienating a juror, and nothing could be further from the truth in this instance,” the lawyers said, adding that they have every confidence that the trial judge will ensure a full and fair proceeding.

The events in the case took place in June 2018 when the world junior team players were in London for a gala after their championship win.

With files from The Canadian Press 

This is a developing news story — more to come.

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