TORONTO—The trial of a teen boy accused of sexually assaulting two fellow students at Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School is hearing from another student at the prestigious private high school.
Taking the stand by videoconference, the witness was asked today to identify people seen on security footage coming in and out of the school’s locker room after a football game in the fall of 2018.
The accused teen has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of gang sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, and assault with a weapon related to two incidents at St. Michael’s that fall.
Last week, court viewed two videos in which another teen boy, one of the complainants, described the incidents to a police investigator.
In one of the recordings, that teen recalled being sexually assaulted with a broom handle by a group of students in the school’s locker room in October 2018.
In the other, he recounted witnessing a similar sexual assault on another student in the same locker room roughly a month later.
He did not mention the accused teen in connection with the first incident, but alleged the accused held back the arms of the victim in the second.
That teen who testified was initially among those charged in the November 2018 incident, but the charges against him were dropped.
Court has heard there were two sexual assaults at the high school in 2018 when boys involved with a football team held down two different victims and sexually assaulted them with a broom handle in the locker room.
Three teens have already pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a weapon and assault with a weapon for their roles in the incidents and have been sentenced to two years of probation.
One of them also pleaded guilty to making child pornography for recording one of the sex assaults in a video that was then shared within the school and beyond.
Another student received a two-year probationary sentence with no jail time after pleading guilty. The charges against another student, aside from the one who testified, were dropped
None of the minors involved in the case—including the accused, the complainants, and some witnesses—can be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
By Paola Loriggio
