How trauma can affect memory and court testimony [Video]

The complainant in the sexual assault trial for five former Canadian world junior hockey players repeatedly said under cross-examination that her memory has been clouded by trauma from the alleged sexual assaults.

Known as E.M. because of a standard publication ban in such cases, she has alleged she was sexually assaulted by five players with the championship team in June 2018 in a London, Ont., hotel room.

Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have all pleaded not guilty at the jury trial in Superior Court in London, Ont. In a turn of events on Friday, the jury was discharged and proceedings are continuing before a judge alone.

Whether the alleged sexual acts on the night in question were consensual or amount to criminal acts will be determined by the judge, but the concept of how trauma may affect memory has loomed throughout the cross-examination. 

For example, E.M. told a lawyer for one of the accused men: “I …