Conflicting stories in case of girl’s attempted murder

Closing arguments have begun in the case involving a man from the St-Laurent borough accused of the attempted murder and sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl.

The man, now 45, was arrested after the girl was attacked in 2013. He cannot be named because his close relationship with the girl might help identity her and there is a standard publication ban protecting her identity. The man was close to the girl’s family at the time and she considered him to be like an uncle.

During the trial, the girl alleged the man was alone with her in her family’s apartment in the StLaurent borough on May 23, 2013 when he began to strangle her with her skipping rope. She testified that she passed out and woke up much later lying in an alley near the apartment. Her clothes were torn and bloodied and the skipping rope was still wrapped around her neck.

In May, the accused testified in his defence and said he wasn’t the person who attacked the girl. He told Quebec Court Judge Sylvie Kovacevich that the last time he saw the girl on the day in question was as she was heading outside to play that evening and that he handed her the skipping rope before she left. He said he saw two teenagers follow the girl as she was walking away and went outside the apartment to find them. He said the two teens assaulted him which, he testified, explains why his blood could be found in different sections of the apartment. The girl testified that she struck the accused in the face before she passed out.

On Thursday, defence lawyer Sharon Sandiford asked Kovacevich to look at contradictions in the girl’s testimony and to weigh them against other evidence gathered in the investigation. As an example, Sandiford noted that the girl testified that when she woke up in the alley she went to a nearby apartment, knocked on the door, asked for help and the person who answered slammed the door on her.

That person was called as a witness in the trial. Sandiford noted that he testified he had arrived home late from work, had grocery bags in his hands, unlocked his door and was preparing to close it when he noticed someone had stuck their foot in his doorway, leaving him unable to close it. While summarizing the man’s testimony, Sandiford said the man recalled that he screamed and that the girl in his doorway did the same. He recalled that the girl looked “like a mess” before closing the door on her.

“This is a very different version from the girl saying she knocked on the door,” Sandiford said.

The defence lawyer also noted that the accused gave his version of being attacked by two teens to the police before any analysis was done on the girl’s ripped clothing. Two samples of DNA that were found on the girl’s training bra have yet to be matched to anyone the girl knew at the time.

While the girl testified that she had slapped her attacker across the face her testimony did not explain how the accused ended up with scratch marks on his chest that caused him to bleed, Sandiford said. The 45-year-old testified it was one of the two teenagers who scratched him.

“To me, the evidence shows the assault took place outdoors,” Sandiford said while noting that no traces of the girl’s blood were found on a stairway the accused would have had to have used if he moved her unconscious body from the apartment to the alley.

The prosecution is to make its closing arguments on Friday.