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What I mean is the interpretation of events by four ex-teammates聽鈥� none of whom were charged or have been accused of criminal wrongdoing聽鈥� who have testified that they took their leave of Room 209 at the Delta Armouries hotel in London, Ont., after witnessing at least some of what was unfolding in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018.

The trial, now dragging into its sixth week, hinges on whether the sex was consensual or not and if that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But either way, it was sordid, tribal behaviour of the most repellent kind by a mini mob of hockey players.

Three of the player-witnesses have said they had girlfriends at the time, two of them citing those relationships as their reason for bailing from what has been repeatedly described by those witnesses as consensual sex, with the complainant as instigator and aggressor. The complainant聽鈥� known as E.M., her identity protected by a publication ban聽鈥� has testified that she never told the young men to stop, never asserted her unwillingness, never tried to leave and no one ever stopped her from doing so.

Still, sorry not sorry, no Boy Scout badge for withdrawing because of an existing romantic attachment. Nor for failure of any intervention.

For the complainant, what she lost was her humanity, treated聽鈥� as described in her testimony聽鈥� like a sex doll.

For the accused, much has also been lost: Cal Foote had played for four NHL teams, most recently the New Jersey Devils, and became a restricted free agent last summer, with no NHL takers, signing on with two teams in the Slovakia league; Michael McLeod, six years with the Devils, wasn’t re-signed last summer either, and left the NHL for the KHL; Dillon Dub茅 had six seasons with the Calgary Flames on a deal that expired last June; Carter Hart, six years with the Philadelphia Flyers, didn’t receive a qualifying offer last summer and, according to published reporters, has walked away from hockey entirely, switching to a career in construction.

Even if acquitted, it’s unlikely they’ll ever play in the NHL again.

They were all among the cream of the crop from that 2018 world junior championship team, a squad that included future NHL star Cale Makar and current NHLers Jonah聽Gadjovich, Drake Batherson and (ex-Leaf) Conor Timmins.

Some were among the players who’d assembled at Jack’s Bar, where they made the acquaintance of E.M. It was all fun and drinking and dancing until the after-party continued in McLeod’s room, where the complainant said she’d gone in full expectation that they’d have sex. She was not, however, prepared for the up to 10 players who filed through that room later, many (not all) in response to a “three-way” invitation from McLeod.

Whatever brought them there, none was compelled to stay when the scene became uneasy, demeaning and clearly too disquieting. Yet not a one said: Knock it off.

Brett Howden, fourth ex-teammate summoned to the stand as a Crown witness, last week agreed to the accuracy of a statement he’d made to the Hockey Canada investigator about comments he’d heard in the room after E.M. had allegedly implored the players to have sex with her, including what he’d said to an apparently conflicted Hart: “If she wants to have sex with you, I guess it’s OK,” and “if she’d consent and she wants you, then sure,” and “it’s up to you.”

Howden is in his seventh season as a forward with the Vegas Golden Knights. There’s no indication that, had he not left when he did, Howden聽鈥� now married with two young children聽鈥� would have participated in the sexual activity. But he hasn’t been spared the disgrace either.

He’s told of how ashamed he was, having to explain those events to his family, his girlfriend and Hockey Canada. That specific recollection brought him to tears. He admitted even to fearing his father.

Yet he didn’t speculate how he might have changed the outcome that has been alleged, in the hour he was present, if he’d even tried to shake some sense into his teammates, steer them away from what E.M. was allegedly offering.

Back on the stand Monday by remote video link from Vegas, Howden was handed from one defence lawyer to another for cross-examination when the trial finally reconvened following a protracted voir dire聽鈥� a trial within a trial聽鈥� after the Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham had argued forcibly for some of Howden’s texts to be ruled admissible. It was a plea the prosecution lost, with the judge ruling the texts were hearsay evidence; their truth and reliability couldn’t be guaranteed.

“I just remember nobody at the time wanted to take her up on it,” Howden told David Humphrey, who represents McLeod. “I do remember guys backing off essentially.”

Humphrey: “But she was the one making offers to have sex?”

Howden: “Yeah.”

Humphrey: “It’s not the case that guys were telling her to do things?”

Howden: “No.”

The witness said he saw E.M. performing oral sex on McLeod and Hart. “It was uncomfortable and awkward seeing this stuff, just awkward 鈥� not wanting to stare, I guess.”

E.M. has testified that she was exceedingly drunk and the players should have realized that. But Howden repeated to Humphrey what he’d told the Hockey Canada investigator in 2018: “She said she was too sober for this.”

Howden was directed back to a previous statement in which he said he’d heard E.M. crying as he was leaving.

On Monday, however, Howden agreed that what may have sounded like crying was related to the complainant’s embarrassment that there were no further takers after she’d given McLeod and Hart oral sex.

When Megan Savard, representing Hart, took over the cross-examination reins, Howden continued in a similar vein. “We were all put in a weird position because of how forthcoming she was being.”

Savard: “People were laughing at this but nobody was making fun of her, correct?”

Howden: “Correct.”

Savard: ”(Hart) didn’t want to take up her offer, he may have been trying to look cool in front of his teammates?”

Howden “Correct.”

Howden looked in Hart’s face as he was receiving oral sex and Hart looked embarrassed, the witness agreed.

In previous statements, Howden said both McLeod and Hart had kept their hands near their waists, never otherwise touched E.M. “It was not an aggressive blowjob,” he’d told the Hockey Canada investigator.

Savard, on Monday: “Throughout your time in the room, you have no doubt that what you saw was 100 per cent consensual?”

Howden: “Yeah.”

In Howden’s memory, the players caused E.M. no harm, no duress, no ridicule.

Seven years later, he seems belatedly aware of the shame and injury he caused himself as a bystander struck dumb.