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

The judge overseeing the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team ruled Friday she will not allow prosecutors to enter into evidence a 2018 text message in which one player who has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing discussed seeing the complainant in the case being slapped “so hard.”

Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham had argued with defence counsel over the admissibility of a text message sent by Brett Howden to Taylor Raddysh roughly a week after an alleged sexual assault at the Delta Armouries Hotel in downtown London, Ont.

“Dude, I’m so happy I left when all the s--t went down,” Howden’s June 26, 2018, text message said. “Haha. Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl’s ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.”

Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote are accused of sexually assaulting a then-20-year-old woman in McLeod’s hotel room. McLeod is facing a second charge as being a party to the act.

The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban and is referred to as E.M. in court documents, has alleged that after she had consensual sex with McLeod in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018, he surreptitiously invited his teammates to his room and that she was sexually assaulted for hours.

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.

Howden, who is now 27 and who was testifying remotely from Las Vegas, said Tuesday that he didn’t remember sending Raddysh that message. Both Howden and Raddysh were in McLeod’s hotel room when E.M. was there with as many as 10 men. Neither Howden nor Raddysh have been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Justice Maria Carroccia said Friday morning that she agreed with the defence that Howden’s text message should be excluded.

“Although Mr.........

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