London, Ont. police defend handling of World Junior sex assault case, chief apologizes to alleged victim

Hours after the sexual assault case against five former members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey team was adjourned until late April, London Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the alleged victim for how long it took for charges to be laid.

Facing reporters for the first time since the charges were announced, Truong and Det. Sgt Katherine Dann faced a barrage of questions from reporters on Monday about why the case was initially closed, and later reopened, ultimately taking six years before charges were laid.

Both Truong and Dann repeatedly said they weren’t able to provide details due to the matter being before the courts, but Truong acknowledged the alleged victim’s courage and “incredible strength” and apologized for the lengthy process.

“I want to extend on behalf of the London Police Service my sincerest apology to the victim, to her family, for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point.”

The police chief would only reveal that the initial probe into the allegations took place between June 2018 and February 2019 and ended without charges.

“It was determined that there were insufficient grounds to lay a charge. This decision led to the case being closed,” he said.

“A comprehensive review was initiated over three years later, on July 20, 2022,” he added.

“This review involved re-examining initial investigative steps, gathering additional evidence and obtaining new information. As a result, we have found sufficient grounds to charge five males with sexual assault.”

Truong said he couldn’t elaborate on what that new evidence was.

Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod were each charged with sexual assault late last month related to the alleged incident at a London hotel in June 2018 following a team night out to celebrate their gold medal win.

A court document shows McLeod is facing an additional charge of sexual assault for “being a party to the offence.”

Dann explained the extra charge on Monday, saying the “party to the offence charge is in relation to aiding someone else in committing the offence.”

The case for all five men got underway in a London, Ont. court on Monday morning.

None of the accused were present in court, and their lawyers agreed to a future court date of April 30 on their behalf.

They’ve all been released on undertakings.

The judge ordered a publication ban on this case — a fact that quickly extinguished the majority of questions reporters sought to have answered on Monday.

With police unable to provide details on what transpired, reporters shifted their focus to the handling of the case by London Police, grilling them about the lengthy process and questioning their competence.

When Truong was asked if another police service should take over the case, he defended his force and his investigators.

“The investigation was reviewed in 2022. And because of that review, we are here today. There’s absolutely no need to turn the investigation over to any (other) police service … I can tell you that the (sex crimes) unit that we have today currently are the most dedicated investigators, the most trained investigators and the most compassionate investigators that we have.”

When Dann was asked if any other players from the 2018 Canadian World Juniors could face charges in the case, or if they’ve cooperated with the investigation, she replied: “We have laid all the charges that we have reasonable grounds for, and we’ve had varying levels of participation in the investigation, but I won’t provide specifics about who cooperated and who didn’t.”

With files from The Canadian Press