A judge has been named to oversee the trial of the five former Team Canada players at the 2018 World Junior Championship accused of sexual assault, according to TSN’s Rick Westhead.
The five former 2018 World Juniors hockey players charged with sexual assault know who will oversee their trial.
Court records indicate Justice Bruce Thomas has been assigned to the case.
Thomas, who has been a judge since 1999, was Regional Senior Judge for Ontario’s Southwest…— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 12, 2024
Westhead reported that court records show that Justice Bruce Thomas will be the judge presiding over the trial. Justice Thomas has been a judge in Ontario since 1999, and “has overseen some of the area’s highest-profile trials in recent years.”
The five accused players, including former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart, were arrested back in January.
Related: BREAKING: Flyers Will Not Qualify Carter Hart
An official trail start date has not been set yet, but Westhead mentioned that “it’s possible a date for the players’ trial will be set tomorrow [Aug. 13] during a hearing in London.”
Due to the backlog of cases in the Ontario court system, reports have said that it’s likely the trial will not start until 2025.
Defense attorneys have spent the last months “reviewing what Crown attorney Heather Donkers has called ‘substantial’ paper and audio evidence collected by London police in connection with the case.”
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