Accused ringleader in sex-shaming attack lied to police, she tells court
Sometimes, James Cavanagh’s search for truth begins with a lie.
And it came during the Crown attorney’s cross-examination of the accused ringleader in a vicious 2015 kidnapping and sex-shame attack of a young Congolese woman.
The degrading attack was broadcast on Facebook in a series of graphic videos. The young woman, half naked, is seen crying as she’s berated for having sex with one of the accused’s boyfriends. In another video, the terrified woman, who was allegedly kidnapped at knife point, is seen undressed on a bed as someone applies hair-removal cream to her pubic hair.
The accused ringleader, Eunice “Chou Chou” Ilunga, 43, took the stand in her own defence and under cross-examination on Monday admitted to lying to police days after the attack.
One of her key lies was that she told police in July 2015 that the alleged victim opened the door to her apartment, which, as the prosecutor noted, was a lie about having permission to enter the apartment.
In fact, Ilunga testified, she actually had a key and entered to apartment without the alleged victim’s consent.
“You chose to lie to the police officer,” the prosecutor pressed. “Yes,” she replied. “You’re a few feet away, looking at the officer in the eye, and you lie?”
“Yeah.”
Ilunga told court that she lied to police on the advice of her sister.
The accused ringleader also had trouble with her story about when she saw the phone video of her boyfriend having sex with the alleged victim. It is this sex video that the prosecution contends infuriated Ilunga, who admitted to slashing the alleged victim’s couch with a knife, breaking her chair and kicking the TV over for good measure before leaving the apartment.
But Ilunga says she saw the sex video in a backyard, and nowhere near the scene of the alleged home invasion and kidnapping. She also said she was confused about where she saw the video and had memory problems. She also said watching the sex video made her anything but angry. In fact, she said, it felt as if a soft breeze had calmed her heart.
The prosecutor declared that her story made no sense, and that she was in fact furious.
The accused said she was already angry before she saw the video.
The sex-shame attack has shaken Ottawa’s tight-knit Congolese community.
The case against Ilunga, Safi “Lolo” Mahinja, 27, and Sandrine Tomb-Kalema, 37, is anchored in videos of the attacks that court heard left the young woman fearing for her life.
In a video after the attack, the accused are seen and heard singing along to a song on the radio as they are driving away. They made up their own lyrics to Brigade’s Affaire de la rencune Rondo and by doing so documented their attack, according to the Crown.
All of the accused have pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault in the alleged revenge plot in which a 21-year-old woman was targeted for having sex with another woman’s boyfriend. The trial by judge alone continues Tuesday.