Woman says she fully co-operated with alleged sex assault investigation involving World Junior hockey players
CBC
The complainant at the centre of an alleged group sexual assault that's shaken Canada's sports world says she has fully co-operated at all times with a police investigation into her case, despite Hockey Canada originally saying she didn't.
The woman filed a $3.5-million lawsuit in April that said in 2018, eight hockey players including members of Canada's World Junior team sexually assaulted, humiliated and degraded her at a hotel room in London, Ont.
The statement of claim, which has not been proven in court, said the hockey players brought golf clubs to the hotel room to further intimidate her, directed the woman to shower after the sexual assault and told her to say she was sober while they videotaped a consent video.
As first reported by the Globe and Mail Tuesday, the complainant's lawyer Robert Talach released a statement saying that his client was clear to police in June 2018 that she wanted criminal charges pursued.
"This woman has fully engaged and co-operated with all the legal and formal investigations surrounding these events," wrote Talach in a statement shared with CBC News.
Hockey Canada released a statement in May that's still on its website which describes the complainant as not being co-operative in the London police investigation.
"The person bringing the allegations forward chose not to speak with either police or with Hockey Canada's independent investigator and also chose not to identify the players involved," reads the statement that followed TSN's reporting on the case. "This was her right and we fully respect her wishes."
A month later, Hockey Canada later corrected that statement and said, "We have subsequently learned through her lawyer that she did in fact make a complaint to the police."
Talach said he believes Hockey Canada made an "honest mistake," but the statement was continually reported in the media "over and over again" and needed to be addressed.
"Earlier media reporting that she did not approach or co-operate with police was inaccurate," Talach said in the statement.
He provided a series of new details about the case including that his client spoke with a detective within days of the alleged sexual assault and had a physical exam done at a hospital.
His client also later gave her clothing to police to examine and met with officers on two other occasions that summer, Talach said. After seven months, she was told the investigation was closed and no charges would be laid.
Following an eruption of public outrage, London's police chief announced last month that it would conduct an internal review to "determine what, if any, additional investigative avenues exist."
Talach said his law firm set up a polygraph test for the woman and that she passed. The results have since been provided to police and Hockey Canada's investigators and the NHL, which in May launched its own investigation.
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