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

London, Ont. – A lawyer representing Carter Hart suggested to the complainant in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team Thursday that she was not truthful with the jury when she testified earlier this week that players in Michael McLeod’s hotel room told one another not to let her leave during the alleged incident because she was crying, and physically guided her back into the room.

“I want to ask you about crying,” defence lawyer Megan Savard said Thursday morning to E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban. “You said on Monday that when you were in the room you were crying and the players noticed.”

Hart, McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote are charged with sexual assaulting E.M. in a London hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018.

The Crown has alleged that after E.M. went to McLeod’s hotel room following a night of dancing at a downtown London bar, McLeod sent a group text message to his teammates inviting them to his hotel room where E.M. was repeatedly sexually assaulted. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to the offence. All of the players have pleaded not guilty.

Savard spent much of her time on Thursday cross-examining E.M. about her alleged attempts to leave McLeod’s hotel room.

E.M. has testified this week that, as she was crying while trying repeatedly to leave the room,........

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