Tearful youths recounted stomach-churning sex assaults while they were members of Scouts and Cadet groups in Red Deer.
Accused in the matter is a youth who was also a member of the youth groups when the alleged assaults occurred, between 2011 and 2015.
One 17-year-old male victim recounted four assaults over a two-year period. The first came when the two were at a cabin at Camp Woods on Sylvan Lake in 2011 where he was threatened with a small knife to touch the accused in a sexual nature.
The trial began Wednesday for the now 18-year-old charged with five counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault with a weapon and one count each of sexual interference and an indecent act.
The male accused can’t be identified because he was a youth at the time of the offences.
A court ordered publication ban protects the identity of the victims as well.
The 17-year-old youth described three other assaults in his testimony. During a Scouts sleepover at Rexall Place in Edmonton, he said the accused made him touch him and threatened him again. A similar incident occurred at a later date while the two were on a camping excursion.
The three incidents occurred between 2011 and 2012.
A fourth incident occurred at the accused’s house while the two were playing video games as he performed an indecent act in front of him.
Two female victims also recounted their assaults. One, a 15-year-old, described waking up on a bus to the accused fondling her in 2014. She got up to leave and said the accused grabbed her wrist and tried to assault her again. She got away.
The second female victim, now aged 17, described two incidents in 2011 and 2012 while the two were members of a local Scouts group.
The victim admitted the two were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time of the first assault, dating for a week. She said she was cornered in a storage space under the stairs of a two-storey cabin where he fondled her against her will. The cabin was at a camp where they were on a scouting activity in the fall of 2011. They broke up shortly after.
In May 2012, the victim described a second assault while the two were cleaning up garbage along the road near Clearview. She said the accused would make sure no one was looking and grab at her breasts quickly. She told him to stop, but he persisted.
Defence counsel Kevin Schollie questioned each witness on whether or not the incidents even occurred, suggesting to the witnesses that they did not even happen.
The trial resumes on Friday in Red Deer youth court with testimony from two more victims and police officers.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com