Victim says she took a lot of drugs to erase memories of rapes

A rape victim shouted from a B.C. Supreme Court witness box Thursday that she did a lot of drugs so she wouldn’t remember what happened to her.

“I did a lot of crystal meth, a lot of heroin and a lot of crack to put it all behind me. Five overdoses, to put it all behind me,” she yelled at the lawyer asking her questions.

For the second day, the woman, whose identity is protected by a court order, was physically ill, throwing up in a garbage can as she gave evidence at Peter Leno’s sexual assault trial.

Leno, who is representing himself, is getting legal assistance from lawyer Cheyne Hodson, who has been appointed by the court to cross-examine this witness.

Court has heard that on June 23, 2003, the woman was raped by three men in Duncan when she was 15 years old.

The woman, now 30, appeared distressed as Hodson asked her to recall what happened that night.

“I don’t want to f — king be here,” she said, then got up out of the witness box and started walking toward the door.

A sheriff quietly turned her around and brought her back to the box.

Justice Keith Bracken asked her to try her best to answer the questions put to her.

But toward the end of the morning, cross-examination was adjourned when Crown prosecutor Jim Blazina said he was concerned about her health.

Bracken told the jury the witness was not coming back Thursday afternoon, but might be back today.

On Wednesday, the jury watched a video statement the 15-year-old made to Const. Heather Bickle at the Duncan RCMP detachment on June 28, 2003.

In the video, the girl told Bickle she was waiting at a 7-Eleven store for a friend, who didn’t show up. Three men, all in their early 20s, pulled up in a small, whitish grey, two-door car about 11:30 p.m.

One dark-haired man got out to use the pay phone. A man in the back seat of the car called her over: “Hey Baby. Come over here. Scratch my head.”

The girl told him she didn’t like being called “Baby.” She went over to him and scratched his head and his back. He brought her a beer and he took her behind the store and started kissing her.

In the video, the girl recalled that the driver had blonde hair and there was black fake fur in the back seat of the car.

She said she got into the back seat of the car with the man she had been kissing. Someone used the name Thomas, she said.

They just drove around, she said. She didn’t have any feeling that anything bad was going to happen.

“Then they parked, they got me out of the car and then put me in the bushes and raped me,” she told Bickle.

As the officer tried to get her to describe the rape, the girl said she wanted to go home.

“At least you know you are safe now. It’s over. It’s not going to happen again. You know we’re here for you and just take us there with you right now,” Bickle said.

Eventually, the girl said the men made her lie down on the ground.

“I tried to leave but they wouldn’t let me. They grabbed my arm and told me I couldn’t leave and I was like OK. And then one guy just undid my pants, undid his pants and just started having sex with me … . And they were all taking turns.”

One man was on top of her. Another was down on his knees. The other man was standing up waiting for his turn, she told police.

“I was just like crying with my eyes closed. I was ‘Oh God. Somebody save me.’ ”

The interview ended with the teenager in tears telling Bickle she wanted to go home.

On Thursday afternoon, former Duncan cabbie Peter Mace testified that he stopped at the 7-Eleven that night and his client went into the store.

“I saw this lady sitting on the curb there and she was crying her eyes out and was all dirty. She had abrasions on her,” Mace testified. “She was crying and shaking and I do have my first aid and I thought she was in trouble. I believed she was in shock.”

The girl’s face was white and she looked scared. Her jeans were all dusty and dirty.

“I said: ‘How come you’re barefoot?’ She just had one shoe.”

Mace’s client came out of the store. At that point, a man drove up in a blue car. Mace knew him because they had worked together at a Chevron station.

“I told her go and talk to him. He’ll help you out.”

The trial is scheduled to continue today.