Content advisory: This article includes allegations of sexual assault.

A woman referred to as “Jane Doe” in court documents has filed a $3.75 million lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by four unnamed former Windsor Spitfires players at a house party in the spring of 1984.

The lawsuit, which names as defendants four “John Does,” the Ontario Hockey League, and the Canadian Hockey League, was filed on Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor.

The Spitfires did not respond to a request for comment. OHL spokesman Josh Sweetland, on behalf of the OHL and CHL, declined to comment, saying the league has not been served with the lawsuit.

The “Jane Doe” in the Windsor case is represented by London lawyer Rob Talach, the same attorney who represented E.M., a woman who alleged in an April 2022 lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players, including members of Canada’s gold medal-winning 2017-18 World Junior team. That lawsuit was settled weeks after it was filed and eventually resulted in criminal charges against five players.

Talach wrote to TSN in an email Wednesday that he disagrees with critics who might say survivors should be discounted if they remain silent about their case for years.

“Delayed disclosure by victims of sexual abuse is as natural as bleeding when cut,” Talach wrote. “It is how the body works… Have we not been educated enough over the past few decades to understand that delayed disclosure is the norm for victims of sexual trauma? A gang rape is a sexual trauma.”

“Jane Doe” said in an interview with TSN on Thursday that she buried her trauma for decades before........

© TSN