Verdict comes after witness testimonies at February trial
Former Gee-Gees David Foucher, and Guillaume Donovan were found not guilty of sexual assault charges dating back to 2014.
The charges were pressed against the players following a hockey game against Lakehead University on Feb. 1, 2014, where they had sexual encounters with a young woman from Thunder Bay.
On Monday June 25, Justice Chantal Brochu delivered her verdict based on the 10 day trial held in February of this year, where the court heard from the complainant, whose name is protected under a publication ban, a friend of the complainant, former Gee-Gees hockey coach Real Paiement, and former U of O hockey player Mathieu Leduc.
Judge says there are large divergences in six witnesses’ testimony,. One of the witnesses (complainant’s friend who picked her up from hotel) had no direct perspective on the inccident.
— Matthew Kupfer CBC (@matthewkupfer) June 25, 2018
In the first days of the trial, the complainant claimed that she met Donovan’s roommate after matching with him on Tinder and having drinks with him at a bar. The two then returned to the hotel room where the team was staying for the away game, and began having consensual sex when Donovan entered the room, along with two other Gee-Gee players (including Foucher), and started having sex with her without her consent.
According to the CBC, both Donovan and Foucher denied the allegations, with Donovan claiming that the complainant consented to his participation in the threesome (a claim she repeatedly denied during the trial).
Foucher claimed that he did not have any sexual contact with the complainant, but acknowledged that “he was part of a group of Gee-Gees players who entered the hotel room stripped down to their winter boots as a prank,” which Leduc confirmed.
Matthew Kupfer of CBC news reported that both Donovan and Foucher were acquitted on the basis of reasonable doubt in regards to both Foucher’s activity and the complainant’s consent.
Judge says accused may have testified in their defence, or to clear their names, but they have nothing to be proud of about that night. “They certainly didn’t act like gentleman.”
— Matthew Kupfer CBC (@matthewkupfer) June 25, 2018
