One of the five players from Canada's 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship team reportedly told by London police to surrender to face sexual assault charges has turned himself in.
The Globe and Mail reported Sunday that Alex Formenton, a former member of the Ottawa Senators and the London Knights, surrendered at London Police headquarters. Late last week, Formenton was granted a leave from the team he had been playing for in the Swiss professional hockey league.
He was among five players from the 2018 World Junior team granted leaves from their teams last week. The others were Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Michael McLeod and Cal Foot of the New Jersey Devils, and Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames
The five players were reportedly told last week to surrender to face charges in connection with an alleged sexual assault in a London hotel room.
In 2018, a woman reported she was sexually assaulted by a group of players from the Canadian World Junior team, after a gala event in London to honour their gold medal win earlier in the year.
London police investigated the assault and closed the case in 2019 without charges.
However, the case was reopened after news of a civil settlement between the victim and Hockey Canada was uncovered by TSN in June of 2022.
That story set off a chain of events that impacted hockey from coast to coast, which wound up with board members resigning and staff leadership being replaced following an embarrassing series of appearances before politicians on Parliament Hill.
All this happened while London police said they had reopened their investigation and the National Hockey League said it had launched one of its own.
"We will provide all updates to the media on this investigation at a press conference scheduled for February 5, 2024. Once the details for the press conference is confirmed we will provide that information to the media via a media advisory," said Cst. Matthew Dawson.
**with files from Craig Needles