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

During separate interviews with a police investigator in late 2018, Alex Formenton and Dillon Dube shared their perspectives about what happened in a hotel room in London, Ont., the night of an alleged sexual assault in June 2018, saying that a number of their teammates stood and watched as E.M. engaged in sex acts with several different men.

On Wednesday, the trial of Formenton, Dube, and three of their former teammates on Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team reviewed 2018 police interviews in which Formenton and Dube were interviewed by London Police Service sergeant Stephen Newton.

Newton, who is now retired, was the lead investigator in the case after E.M., the complainant in the case whose identity is protected by a publication ban, initially contacted police. He closed the case without laying charges in early 2019.

Newton conducted the in-person interview of Formenton in London on Nov. 24, 2018. He spoke to Dube on the phone on Dec. 18, 2018. Both of the players were represented by Toronto lawyer Lou Strezos, who has since been appointed an Ontario Superior Court judge.

Formenton, Dube, Michael McLeod, Callan Foote and Carter Hart are accused of sexually assaulting E.M. in McLeod’s hotel room during the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, following a night of dancing and drinking at a downtown London bar. McLeod faces a second charge of being party to the offence. All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The Crown has alleged that Formenton had sex with E.M. in the bathroom, that McLeod, Hart and Dube received oral sex from the complainant, that Dube slapped E.M.’s naked buttocks, that Foote did the splits over E.M.’s head and “grazed” his genitals over her head, and that McLeod had sex with E.M. for a second time in the hotel room bathroom.

Both Formenton and Dube told Newton that after a Hockey Canada event during which players received rings to celebrate their world junior championship, players went out to party at Jack’s bar in downtown London. Formenton and Robert Thomas, who were 18 at the time, were not allowed in Jack’s and instead joined some Team Canada coaches at Joe Kool’s, another downtown bar, where Formenton drank a beer and two rum and Cokes, Formenton told Newton.

After spending 90 minutes with his coaches, Formenton received a text message from McLeod, his roommate at the Delta Armouries Hotel in London, saying that he had a girl in the room who wanted to have a threesome, Formenton told Newton.

Formenton responded to McLeod that he’d be back to the hotel soon.

“So, in your mind, when Mr. McLeod is saying this, what is in your mind? What are you thinking is going to happen when you get back to the hotel?” Newton asked.

“I just assumed that this girl wanted to have a threesome with me and Mikey........

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