Investigation launched in yet another alleged sexual assault involving 8 players!

The hockey world is still awaiting 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. Court documents from 2022 revealed London police believed they had reasonable grounds to accuse five players of sexually assaulting a young woman in a hotel room. Since then, respective NHL teams have cut ties with the players.

On Wednesday, TSN’s Rick Westhead, who has closely followed the 2018 WJC incident and was also the one reporting on the sexual assault on Kyle Beach that took place back in 2010 amongst the Chicago Blackhawks provided an important update on yet another alleged sexual assault, one 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. However after she contacted authorities where her alleged assault took place, she was told they could not help her either. She was told to call police in the community where she now lives.

From Westhead’s report:

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.

“I was taken into a bathroom,” she said. “And that’s when the player who invited me over began having sex with me – starting sexual acts. They never closed the bathroom door fully… And then next thing I know more players start coming in.

There’s players standing and watching. They start taking their turns, doing whatever it is they want.”

Anne Marie said she felt trapped and was assaulted for about 90 minutes. She said she froze and “pretty much blacked out.”

“You’re stuck in the basement with eight junior hockey players,” she said. “Trapped in a corner, literally in the far back room of a basement.”

She said she remembers players referring to each other by their nicknames.

“Pretty quickly it got to the point where I just tried to take my mind somewhere else and tried not even to make eye contact,” she said. “I waited for the first clear out available, which was pretty much after everyone had taken a turn, some more than once. I was brought into the shower. And after that, I felt like I had a chance to get the hell out.”

After the incident, Anne Marie phoned a friend and felt shame, believing it was all her fault. She did not tell her family what had happened until this year, after watching 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.

This is the links to Hockey DB of the roster of the Mississauga Steelheads back in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

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. When news of the 2018 sexual assault allegations in an incident that featured eight members of the country’s 2018 world junior team, following a gala in London, Ontario came out, a woman stepped forward to say that she was “gang raped” by members of the 2003 Canadian World Juniors team. Westhead reported that the allegations claimed that more than a half-dozen players on the 2003 World Junior team were recorded during the tournament having sex with a woman who was naked and non-responsive.

Then, 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.

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