There were plenty of questions, but few answers, as London police held a news conference about the alleged sexual assault of a woman by five hockey players.
London police Chief Thai Truong and Detective Sergeant Katherine Dann appeared at a news conference at RBC Place in London on Monday afternoon. In his opening remarks, the chief offered an apology to the victim, known only as E.M.
"I want to extend, on behalf of the London Police Service, my sincerest apologies to the victim, to her family, for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point," Truong said. "As a police officer working in this space for many, many years, I can tell you that this is a difficult, difficult situation for all victims and survivors of sexual violence"
The news conference was held just a few hours after lawyers for the five players appeared on behalf of their clients at the London courthouse, where the case was adjourned until April 30.
Calgary Flames forward Dillon Dubé, New Jersey Devils defenceman Cal Foote, Devils centre Michael McLeod, Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart, and former London Knight and Ottawa Senator turned Swiss league player Alex Formenton are all charged with sexual assault. McLeod faces an additional charge of sexual assault by being a party to the offence.
The charges stem from an alleged sexual assault that reportedly took place inside London’s Delta Armouries hotel after a Hockey Canada gala in 2018. A woman reported she was sexually assaulted by a group of players following the fundraiser.
The original investigation into the sexual assault conducted by London police was closed without charges in 2019. However, it was reopened again in the spring of 2022 when news that Hockey Canada had settled a $3.5 million lawsuit with E.M. became public. Late last month, the Globe and Mail broke the news that the five players were told to present themselves to police to be charged with sexual assault.
But when asked questions about details that would shed light on what new information led to the charges, both Truong and Dann repeatedly said there were unable to answer such questions, as doing so could jeopardize the legal case.
Truong would also not answer a question about whether or not the initial investigation was up to the standards of the London Police Service.
"I can't speak to those intricate details from 2018 and what the review brought forward as it is one investigation -there's not two investigations - and everyone involved in the 2018 investigation are potentially witness to the current prosecution, including those individuals that have now taken over the investigation," he said.
The stated inability to answer many of the questions reporters had seemed to be an ongoing theme of the news conference. However, Truong did take time to offer his thoughts on the sexualization of young women that he says plays a role in sexual assaults.
"There's a widespread prevalence of violence towards women, worldwide," he said. "And one contributing factor, one complex thing that we need to address is, us as a society and community, because the sexualization of young women and girls in today's society is contributing to the violence against women. And part of it, and I'm not blaming the media, but I do want to highlight that how we portray young women and girls on TV, in music videos, how we write about them, magazine shoots, all that contributes to sexual violence and the normalization of what we're seeing."
Truong was then asked by Blackburn Media's Craig Needles if taking nearly six years to lay sexual assault charges in a high profile case would also contribute to sexual violence against women.
"That's a fair question. It's not something that, as Chief of Police, I am happy about, that it took six years. I truly am not happy about this, whatsoever. I don't think any of our members are happy about this. And that is why I apologized to the victim and to her family. I can assure you that I am confident that this will not happen again," Truong said.
According to both Dann and Truong, E.M. has been co-operative throughout the investigation.
When asked whether the initial detectives from the 2018 case were still working on the file, Truong said "they are not part of this investigative team as we speak."
The full news conference can be viewed here.
**with files from Miranda Chant and Craig Needles