Investigation launched in yet another alleged sexual assault involving 4 players!

The hockey world is just weeks away from the trial of the sexual assault case involving five 2018 World Junior players, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Michael McLeod. All five have been charged with one count of sexual assault, with McLeod also facing an additional charge (being party to the offence) in the 2018 World Junior alleged sexual assault. It’s alleged the incident occurred following a Hockey Canada gala in Ontario in June 2018, when the players were honoured for their victory at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

For years now, it’s been said that the culture of hockey and junior hockey needs to change and on Thursday, it was revealed how long the problem has been around. Katie Strang, Dan Robson and Chris Johnston of the Athletic have just reported how a lawsuit has been filed against four unnamed Windsor Spitfires players in connection with an alleged group sexual assault that took place in 1984 in Tecumseh, Ontario. The lawsuit also names the Spitfires, the Ontario Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League as defendants.

The details of the assault, provided by the lawsuit and report from Strang, Robson and Johnston are quite disturbing:

“The plaintiff in the case, who is also unidentified and referred to as “Jane Doe,” said in her claim that she lost consciousness during an end-of-season party in the spring of 1984 and awoke “unable to move” and with her clothing removed and one of the players “on top of her, penetrating her vagina with his penis.” The woman said the other three players “then took turns engaging in vaginal penetration of the plaintiff.”

According to the claim, which alleges “sexual abuse, assault and battery,” an additional player from the Spitfires “was present throughout the assault but did not sexually assault the plaintiff while she was conscious.” The plaintiff said she didn’t know whether that player assaulted her before she regained consciousness, but her “only recollection was of the player standing in the corner of the room in an emotional state and crying throughout the remainder of the assaults.”

All five players, the four co-defendants and the additional player who was present during the alleged assault, are identified in the lawsuit as John Does.

The woman’s attorney, London, Ontario-based Rob Talach, said the alleged incident represents a “never-ending haunting” for his client, who is now 59 years old.

According to Talach, the 2018 Hockey Canada case “absolutely” influenced his client to come forward with her claim from 1984.

Other victims were also influenced to come forward as we’ve found down in recent years that other alleged sexual assaults took place.

There was a recent report of an assault that reportedly occured in 2014 and involved eight players from the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League. The Steelheads moved to Brampton in June of 2024. The alleged victim, who is now 32, contacted the Ontario Provincial Police on Feb. 28, 2024 to report an alleged assault in November 2014. The alleged victim goes by the pseudonym, Anne Marie.said that when she was 22, she was in a consensual relationship with a 19-year-old player with the Steelheads for about six months when he invited her to watch TV with one of his teammates at his billet home, where he lived during the hockey season. Anne Marie said that when she visited the player and went with him into the basement, there were eight players there. After the 19-year-old player took her into the bathroom, they started fooling around. What began as a consensual act became a group sexual assault, Anne Marie said. She did not tell her family what had happened until she watched a press conference in which London’s chief of police apologized to a different woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by former Canadian world junior players in 2018.

Not only has the NHL and hockey community been rocked by the ongoing investigation of the 2018 WJC incident, but there have been other disturbing allegations that were brought forward. Another alleged sexual assault is said to have place in 2003 and reportedly involved players from the 2003 World Junior Team Canada. Halifax police were said to have the names of at least two members of the 2003 World Junior hockey team who may have appeared in a video of the alleged group sexual assault. A person who was shown a video of the alleged incident after it occurred in 2003 reported the identities of two players he recognized in the video in an interview with police. The source informed he told Halifax police he recognized the 2003 World Junior player holding the camcorder at the beginning of the video because he held the camera up to his face. The investigation remains ongoing.

The claim from Jane Doe also alleges the Spitfires, the Ontario Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League “failed to report the John Doe defendants to the police after receiving complaints of sexual misconduct,” though it does not provide any further detail about these complaints.

A jury notice was also filed with the court on March 25.

Will it ever change?! This is so disturbing and you have to applaud the courage of the women coming forward. We will find out more as the newly launched investigation unfolds.