A Saskatchewan man has been accused of abusing his teenage stepdaughter — who has spina bifida — for over four years. The matter came to light when the girl confided in a school counselor.
According to a local newspaper, the details of the accused are being held to protect the identity of the minor girl.
A trial is underway in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench for the accused who has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and sexual interference against the girl when she was between 11 and 14 years old.
The girl disclosed the alleged abuse to a school counselor, the court heard. The information was passed along to police in May 2019, when Const. Heidi Marshall interviewed the girl.
The forensic child interviewer with the Warman RCMP testified at the judge-alone trial on Monday during a voir dire — a hearing to determine if her interview with the girl should be admissible as evidence.
“I am confident my interview with (her) extracted all she was going to tell. She was not led in any way,” Marshall was quoted as saying by Bre McAdam in StarPhoenix.
She told Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli that this case affected her differently than others because it was the first time she had led a sexual abuse investigation involving a person with a disability.
Court heard at the time of the allegations, the girl used a walker, wore “pull-ups” and operated at a lower cognitive level than her age. Marshall said while the girl appeared “socially naive” during their interview, they did not have trouble understanding each other.
“She’s just one of those little people who you only have to see once, and she leaves an impression on you. It’s hard to hear disclosures from her about somebody who was supposed to be looking after her,” Marshall said.
However, it did not affect her ability to conduct a professional interview, she testified.
After the girl’s stepfather was arrested, Marshall said the girl’s mother came into the detachment and accused her daughter of lying. The girl told her mother that her stepfather “put his penis in my vagina,” Marshall recalled.
She said the girl’s mother yelled back, “Do you even know what a penis looks like?”
The Crown’s first witness was the girl’s grandmother, who testified that she got custody of the girl in July 2019, shortly after charges were laid.
She said her granddaughter is “very independent” in many ways, but used to have “accidents” due to the physical aspect of her disability. She said cognitively, the girl often struggles to explain herself, but eventually “gets to where she’s going.”
She said she never asked her granddaughter to tell her about the allegations involving her stepfather. When the girl disclosed some information to her, she said she discussed it with the girl’s mother.
Under cross-examination, the woman testified she did not tell the girl’s mother that she was having problems with her granddaughter lying. She said it was the girl’s mother who often lied.
