Defence attorney shares insight into potential sex assault trial of 5 players from 2018 Canada World Juniors team

As new information has yet to be revealed about the five members of Canada’s 2018 World Juniors hockey team who have reportedly been told to surrender to police to face sexual assault charges, one Toronto defence attorney has shared some insight about the potential upcoming trial.

The Globe and Mail, citing unnamed sources, is reporting the group of players are being given a set period of time to turn themselves in to London Police Service headquarters in London, Ont.

In a statement, London Police advised they will not be providing any update until Feb. 5.

Attorney Alexander Karapancev explained to CityNews that oftentimes in a case like this, the police will interview the complainant and the interview is enough to lay sexual assault charges.

Initially, police said that they didn’t have enough evidence and then once more information was revealed, the investigation was reopened.

News broke in the spring of 2022 that a woman alleged that eight players — including members of the 2018 world junior team — sexually assaulted her in a hotel room following a gala event in London in June 2018.

The woman who made the allegation was seeking more than $3.5 million in damages from Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and the unnamed players. Hockey Canada settled the case for an undisclosed amount.

A year ago, London police filed an application with the Ontario Court of Justice stating they had reasonable grounds to believe five members of the 2018 team had sexually assaulted a woman.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

“It tells me one of two things. Number one, that the complainant did not come forth to provide a police statement. Originally, I know there were media reports circulated that suggested this without a complaint and coming to the police and providing a statement in a case like this, there often aren’t reasonable and probable grounds to continue with a criminal investigation that may have changed,” explained Karapancev.

He added after when the news broke, the complainant may have provided a statement to police which led them to further investigate. “I am aware that in this case, the police sought judicial authorizations as well for search warrants and production orders. This leads me to believe that they were seeking to gather documentary evidence related to these allegations as well.”

Court documents obtained in Dec. 2022 stated that police say one of the players recorded two short videos of the victim that night in the hotel room in which he asks her consent for what was happening. Karapancev added he believes this will made it a difficult case.

“It’ll be a difficult case for the Crown to try in court because they’re going to have to persuade a jury or a judge that she didn’t mean the words that she uttered in that video,” said Karapancev.

“It’ll be a difficult case for the woman, the complainant in this case because she’s going to have to answer pointed questions about why she said what she did on that video, why she went to the hotel room in question and what her intentions were that evening,” he added.

The defence attorney explains that the crown attorney will have to assess whether the case meets their standard to bring it to trial.

“[Their standard] is whether or not there’s a reasonable prospect of conviction in this case. And that requires an analysis of all the evidence as well as consideration of whether or not it’s in the public’s interest to proceed.”

Karapancev added this is also a different case because of the settlement the alleged victim received from Hockey Canada after pursuing a civil case.

“That’s going to be a relevant issue in this criminal case. As I suspect, defense lawyers for these accused persons are going to use that when they defend their clients and cross examine this complainant as to her motives for making these allegations,” said Karapancev.

Either way, the proceedings will be difficult for the alleged victim.

“It’s going to be a very difficult situation for her. I suspect that may be why she initially proceeded with a civil proceeding and that’s because the standard of proof in civil court is simply a balance of probabilities, whether or not it’s more likely than not that the allegation occurred compared to the criminal standard of proof where the crown need to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“That can be very difficult in a case where there are no supporting witnesses and no confirmatory or corroborating evidence, essentially, it’s going to be her word against these five players.”

Karapancev said a common commentary on these cases are that many woman who have the courage to come forward, face a difficult time on the stand and still few cases end in convictions.

“Many parties in the criminal justice system often talked about ways to better the system so that all parties involved can feel like they’re being fairly looked after.”

With files from Michael Ranger, The Canadian Press and Sportsnet staff