World junior group sex was regrettable but consensual, defence tells judge [Video]

A group sexual encounter that led to charges against five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team was “regrettable” but “consensual,” a lawyer for one of the accused argues.

Dan Brown, who represents Alex Formenton, told Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia Tuesday in his closing submissions the case against the players is “not complicated” because the complainant, known as E.M. in court documents, is “not reliable.”

“She created a lie,” Brown told Carroccia inside a London, Ont., courtroom.

“It’s a lot easier to explain to friends and family that people did bad things to her rather than explain the choices she made.”

Closing submissions in the high-profile trial began Monday after the defence rested its case last week. The trial, which has been proceeding by judge alone after two juries were dismissed, began in late April.

Formenton, Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex with a then 20-year-old woman in …