Shortly after taking a personal leave from the Philadelphia Flyers, Carter Hart is expected to be one of five players facing charges in the 2018 World Juniors sexual assault case. Rick Westhead of TSN confirmed Hart as one of the players who was asked to surrender to London Police.
The London Police are scheduled to hold a press conference on Monday. The press conference was to update the general public on the investigation and its findings. One player has already been reported as turning himself into the police. That is former Ottawa Senators' forward Alex Formenton. He was playing in Switzerland and recently took a leave to return to Canada.
The other players involved are New Jersey Devils Cal Foote and Michael McLeod, along with Calgary Flames Dillon Dube. All players have been granted personal leave for their respective organizations. They are all expected to turn themselves in before the press conference is held.
This began back in May 2022 when Hockey Canada settled a lawsuit with a woman who alleged that she was sexually assaulted by eight players, including those on Canada's 2018 World Juniors team. It was said to have happened after a team-sanctioned event in London, Ontario. It was a celebration of the team's gold medal win. The players were not consulted during this lawsuit. The case was originally opened in February 2019 but was never made public until this settlement. The case had been closed without charges.
Hockey Canada would end up reopening the investigation, while the NHL was forced to open its own as most players had made it to the professional level. According to court documents from December 2022, the London Police were believed to have enough evidence to charge five members of the 2018 team with sexual assault. The court documents referred to the complainant as E.M. In said documents, E.M. was said to have been spoken to by an older gentleman and told to "take care of" the players. She ended up leaving with one of the players that night. It was also said she was told to get rid of the complaint made to the police by someone involved with Hockey Canada.
As of right now, Carter Hart remains a part of the Flyers organization. That is subject to change pending the revealing of the charges.