Victim says she was gang raped as teens laughed, egged each other on

Three teen boys laughed as they took turns having sex with Sara, encouraging each other to hit her, even as she cried out in pain and said "no."

"Punch that pussy, bro," one boy said to another. 

And the 17-year-old girl was punched. She was hit in the face. She was called a "slut" and a "bitch" and told to "shut the f--k up."

Lawyers for one of the boys have, at this point in the trial, suggested the encounter was consensual.

2 videos  

Two cellphone videos show what happened. Footage was played in the Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday, although members of the gallery could only hear the audio.

Adham El-Sakaan and Timothy Fanning, both 21, are on trial for sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon.

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Another young man — who can't be named because he was 17 years old when he raped the victim — pleaded guilty to sexual assault last year. 

The victim, who also can't be named, testified on Thursday. CBC News will refer to her as Sara.

Sara sat in a remote witness room at the Calgary Courts Centre as her videotaped interview with Det. Adena Warren from the child abuse unit of the Calgary police was played for the court. Warren interviewed Sara in the hours after she was attacked.

'They were laughing'

On audio from the night of Dec. 28, 2016, Sara can be heard whimpering and crying as the boys "took turns" with her. 

"They were laughing," she told Warren.

They raped her with an object and hit her until she apologized when she didn't perform oral sex to their liking.

"I'm going to wreck her," says El-Sakaan at one point on video. 

She is heard crying out "No, no, ow" — but her protests didn't make them stop. They kept going, calling her names, hitting her and slapping her. 

'Smacking me and hitting me'

Before, Sara had agreed to meet up with Fanning, then 19, who she admittedly had a crush on. 

They, El-Sakaan and the teen who pleaded guilty drove to the latter's home. They went into the basement and had some drinks. 

But, Sara said, the boys held her head and forced her mouth open while putting a bottle of Jagermeister liqueur to her lips, pouring it down her throat.

Fanning began touching her and then the other two joined in. Sara said she told them she had a boyfriend and tried to kick them away as they tore her pants off, but it was three on one and things "escalated quickly."

"Every time I would say please stop, [they] would get mad at me … [they] started smacking me and hitting me in the face and head," she told Warren. 

'You better not tell anyone'

She said she was "screaming and yelling 'please stop' but they kept going." 

At one point, one said "you better not tell anyone about this. I don't want to go to jail."

"They tried to tell me I wanted it," she told Warren. 

As she started to cry harder, the boys took a break and she texted a friend. It was still on her phone and Warren read it aloud: "They raped me, they slapped me and hurt me bad. I think they took a video. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me." 

But, Sara told Warren, one of her attackers saw the message and ordered her to tell her friend she had overreacted and was OK.

Sara said she begged them to take her home but in exchange for the drive she said El-Sakaan demanded oral sex again in the car.

She testified that he held her head down, but when they stopped at a red light, he put the window down and pulled her head up so that a car full of people stopped next to them could have a laugh. 

At home, Sara told her parents what happened and they called police. 

'They were my friends'

El-Sakaan's lawyer Joan Blumer has not yet had the chance to question Sara, but she was cross-examined by Fanning's lawyer, Balfour Der.

Der suggested Sara consented to the sex. She disagreed.

He asked Sara why she didn't yell for help if she was scared, prompting an objection from prosecutor Pam McCluskey and a caution from Justice Scott Brooker.

Brooker warned Der to stay away from rape myth-based questions. 

Der suggested Sara had consented to a "gang bang" — a term she had used in a text message with a friend — but again, she denied consenting to the sexual activity.

Asked why she described feeling uneasy in the basement yet didn't try to leave, she said: "I tried to convince myself that there was no reason to be scared because they were my friends."

The trial continues Friday.

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