The Province

Videos made by sex offender shows unconsciou­s teen girls being fondled

SUPREME COURT: Crown seeks to have convicted man declared a dangerous offender

- KEITH FRASER kfraser@theprovinc­e.com twitter.com/keithrfras­er

Videos of Martin Tremblay sexually assaulting vulnerable teenage girls were played for a judge Tuesday, the second day of his dangerous offender hearing.

The videos showed some of the victims being fondled by Tremblay after they had blacked out after drinking heavily and partying with him.

Several of the videos, taken by Tremblay, show only a hand touching the private parts of an unconsciou­s girl.

Tremblay was identified in those videos by the jewelry that he wore, which was later matched with rings and bracelets that were seized after police executed a search warrant on his Burnaby home.

The complainan­ts, one of them as young as 13, cannot be identified because of a publicatio­n ban.

RCMP Const. Kirsty Brown told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Butler that the videos were dropped off by an unknown person at the North Vancouver RCMP detachment in October 2002.

With the help of a hand-drawn map that was also dropped off at the detachment, police were able to locate and arrest Tremblay, charging him with sexually assaulting five girls. Tremblay later pleaded guilty to those offences.

Also played Tuesday was a 30-minute video of Tremblay and three girls driving around in a rented limousine, drinking vodka and beer as they celebrate one girl’s birthday.

The videos could not be seen from the public gallery, but Brown provided a descriptio­n of their content.

Tremblay elected not to view the videos himself. His lawyer told the judge that his client was familiar with the crimes he’d committed.

Evidence from the videos is being led by the Crown in a bid to show that Tremblay has a history of targeting young girls, most of them aboriginal, heavy users of drugs and alcohol, and from broken homes.

Brown told the judge that police tried unsuccessf­ully to locate the five complainan­ts, one of whom had died in Vancouver in 2011 from an accidental drug overdose.

A sixth girl, who was 15 at the time of the offences and helped police track down the five complainan­ts, died in June 2010 of unknown causes.

In February 2013, Tremblay was convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing the deaths of two aboriginal girls. The victims, Kayla Lalonde, 16, and Martha Jackson, 17, died from drug overdoses after partying with Tremblay, who did nothing to help them.

Tremblay is also charged with sexually assaulting four girls between 2005 and 2007. Crown counsel Michaela Donnelly is seeking to have those complainan­ts testify at the dangerous offender hearing.

The Crown wants Tremblay declared a dangerous offender and jailed indefinite­ly. The Vancouver hearing is expected to run for several weeks.

 ??  ?? MARTIN TREMBLAY
MARTIN TREMBLAY

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