Former Canada world junior players plead not guilty in sex assault trial
Five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team have pleaded not guilty in their sexual assault trial that began Tuesday.
Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault early last year in connection to an alleged group sexual assault in London, Ont., after a Hockey Canada gala event in 2018. McLeod is facing an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The players, all dressed in dark suits, entered their pleas one by one in a packed London courtroom Tuesday morning. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia will preside over the trial, which is expected to unfold over several weeks, beginning with jury selection April 22.
News of the event first broke in May 2022 after TSN reported Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with the female complainant.
That report triggered a series of events, with intense scrutiny focused on Hockey Canada that eventually led the entire board and leadership team to resign.
London Police, which closed an initial investigation without charges in 2019, would reopen the case three years later and lay charges.
Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim in February 2024, saying “it shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive at the outcome of today.”
He and other officers offered few details, saying they could not compromise the ongoing legal case.
A court ban prevents the release of any information that could identify the complainant, whose version of what happened in 2018 will be tested in front of the defendants in court.
Shannon Sharpe accused of rape in $50 million lawsuit after ‘rocky consensual relationship’
Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe has been accused of rape by a woman under the pseudonym “Jane Doe” in a 13-page, $50 million civil lawsuit filed Sunday and obtained by The Post.
The complaint, filed in a Nevada state court, alleges the ESPN personality committed assault, sexual assault, battery, sexual battery and engaged in the intentional infliction of emotional distress during a “rocky consensual relationship” that lasted nearly two years with a woman more than thirty years younger than him.
The plaintiff alleges Sharpe brutally sexually assaulted her several times at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.
The complaint accuses Sharpe of threatening to kill her multiple times, being “manipulating and controlling” and “repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her.”
Sharpe denied all allegations of coercion or misconduct in a statement through his counsel to The Post on Monday.
“One time specifically, he was yelling at her while there was a firearm visible in his room,” the complaint states. “Terrified for her safety, Plaintiff tried sharing her location with friends from her iPhone — just in case. But Sharpe saw her doing this. The moment he realized what she was doing, he grabbed her by the neck and told her ‘If you ever do that again, I will f–king kill you.'”
The complaint claims that Sharpe recorded the two involved in sexual acts together without her knowledge and then shared those videos with his friends and associates without her knowledge or permission.
The plaintiff is not the woman that Sharpe accidentally shared audio of on an Instagram livestream “on accident” while having sex in September 2024, the complaint states.
However, the plaintiff claims she began to end the relationship after that incident — because he “cheated” when she thought they were in an exclusive relationship — and Sharpe relentlessly pursued her afterwards.
“Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants, completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”
The plaintiff and Sharpe first met at a Los Angeles gym in early 2023, and their first conversation took place at the gym when she was 20, according to the complaint, which states that Sharpe offered to buy her “fake tits” if she won a fitness challenge that he proposed.
The civil lawsuit states that the woman visited Sharpe at his Beverly Glen mansion on multiple occassions and that he would physically, emotionally and psychologically control her.
“This cycle of control, fear, and submission became routine,” the complaint states. “Yelling at her, controlling her, forcibly grabbing her by the neck when he got upset, saying he was going to ‘kill her,’ and asserting dominance became the norm.
Sharpe was sued a day before Front Office Sports reported that he is expected to sign a deal for his “Club Shay Shay” podcast that would exceed $100 million after his contract with Colin Cowherd’s The Volume podcast network expired recently.
Sharpe, who appeared on ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday, has yet to publicly address the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon.
“Mr. Sharpe categorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct – especially the gross lie of “’rape’ — and will not submit to what he sees as an egregious attempt at blackmail,” Lanny J. Davis, who is representing Sharpe, said in the statement. “He stands firmly by the truth and is prepared to fight these false claims vigorously in court. He looks forward to vindication through due process and a judgment based on the facts and the law.”
The woman is represented by Micah Nash and Tony Buzbee.
Buzbee represented more than 20 women who sued Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, beginning in early 2021, alleging sexual assault and misconduct.
Watson served an 11-game suspension from the NFL in 2022 and was required to pay a fine and undergo treatment.
The three-time Pro Bowler settled 23 of the 24 lawsuits filed against him.
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