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

LONDON, ONT.– Tyler Steenbergen, a former member of Canada’s 2018 world junior team, testified Thursday that teammates Callan Foote and Dillon Dube both phoned him after learning Hockey Canada was conducting an investigation into an alleged sexual assault and asked him not to reveal what he had seen those players do the night of the alleged incident.

Steenbergen testified that Dube and Foote contacted him about a week after the alleged incident on June 19, 2018 in a London hotel room.

After speaking with them, Steenbergen testified that he decided he would only share with Hockey Canada investigators what he had seen if he was asked specifically.

Steenbergen, who is not accused of wrongdoing, testified that while he was in Michael McLeod’s hotel room, he saw Dube slap E.M., the complainant in the sexual assault trial of Dube, Foote, and three of their Team Canada teammates. Steenbergen also saw Foote do the splits over top of E.M., although his view was obscured, he testified.

“They didn't mention either of them in the interview, so I just thought I would let them be able to explain it themselves.” Steenbergen testified, adding that he was not asked about Dube and Foote.

Steenbergen also testified Thursday morning about a June 26, 2018, group chat that featured 11 members of the team in which the players learned Hockey Canada was probing the alleged sexual assault a week earlier and discussed what they would tell investigators.

Assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers read out most of the 134 messages the players in the group chat sent to one another. There were another 11 messages that were either redacted or empty of content.

Members of the group chat included Steenbergen, Foote, Dube, McLeod, Carter Hart, Jake Bean, Maxime Comtois, Drake Batherson, Brett Howden, Sam Steel, and Alex Formenton.

At one point in the exchange, McLeod wrote, “We all need to say the same thing if we get interviewed can’t have different stories or make anything up.”

Steenbergen appeared remotely via CCTV. The 27-year-old, who was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2017 and no longer plays professional hockey, is the third non-charged player to testify in the trial.

McLeod, Hart, Formenton, Dube, and Foote are charged with sexually assaulting a woman referred to in court documents as E.M. in a London hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to the act.

The defendants have all pleaded not guilty. If they are convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

The court has heard evidence that, after dancing with McLeod and his teammates at a bar in downtown London, E.M. returned to McLeod’s hotel room and the two had consensual sex. E.M., whose identity is protected by a publication ban, has testified that she had about 12 alcoholic drinks over the course of the evening, although defence lawyers have suggested that she actually........

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