Content advisory: This article includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault

London, Ont. – A defence lawyer representing Carter Hart, one of the five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team accused of sexual assault, suggested Wednesday that the complainant in the case made up a story about being assaulted so that her boyfriend would not end their relationship.

Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, asked E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban, during cross-examination about her relationship with a man who was her boyfriend of three months in June of 2018.

E.M. testified that while the alleged sexual assault involving the hockey players was difficult for her and her boyfriend, they are still together and planning to get married this August.

“I am suggesting that part of why you’re so resistant this week to some of [defence attorney David Humphrey’s] suggestions that you actively participated [in the sexual activity] is because you know that story actually could have been a relationship ender.” Savard said to E.M.

E.M. responded that she wasn’t an active participant in the alleged act.

“Feeling like I was completely out of my body, I didn't feel like I was an active participant when I was that numb.” E.M. said. She said her boyfriend “knew my character. He knows me. So he didn't question it.”

Hart, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote have been charged with sexually assaulting E.M. in a London hotel room following an evening of dancing and drinking on June 18, 2018. McLeod faces a second charge of being party to the offence. The players, who have pleaded not guilty, face as many as 10 years in prison if they are........

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