Witness testifies about being sexually assaulted by others as well as parents
WARNING: Contains disturbing content.
A London, Ont. jury heard evidence that the children of a London family were sexually assaulted by other people besides their parents on different occasions.
The witness, who cannot be identified, has been testifying for several days in a remote area of the London courthouse away from their parents who are in a courtroom.
Under cross-examination from the defense, the jury was told how, as a teenager, the witness not only had sex with the parents but were also offered up to other people, “It’s not normal to beat your children and be sexually assaulted and then give them to others to be sexually assaulted.”
They said as a child, “I was told for years that I was worthless and stupid and I would not survive in the world without them…for me that was normal.”
The witness said the children were continually threatened by their parents in different ways, “After being told for years and years that if you ever told anyone on the outside world, they would not understand because this is our religion and this is our family…you would never see your siblings again if you told someone.”
The children, who are now adults, eventually contacted the London Police Service.
The parents, who are now both in their fifties, face a total of 47 charges, including sexual assault with a weapon, incest, forcible confinement, and failing to provide the necessaries of life.
The parents have both pleaded not guilty. The incidents are alleged to have happened between 2003 and 2020.
Later in a heated exchange, the defence questioned whether the Crown witness was telling the truth and they responded, “I had a lot of injuries throughout my childhood.”
Then, when asked by the defence if any of the scars could be photographed, the witness said, “No, it’s my body not yours…all my injuries were real I didn’t fake any injuries.”
The court has heard that the children involved are trying to heal and have received mental health counselling.
The trial resumes on Friday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Drive one of these vehicles? You may pay 37 per cent more than average insurance costs due to thefts
As the number of auto theft incidents rises in Canada, so have insurance premiums for drivers, even the ones whose vehicles aren't stolen.
'I'm not wealthy': Ontario senior shocked she owes $40,000 in capital gains after gifting land
An Ontario senior who wanted to help her daughter and grandson eventually own homes one day decided to give them two lots on her property as a gift—but she didn’t know it would eventually cost her tens of thousands of dollars.
NDP want Liberals to scrap proposed election date change that could secure pensions for many MPs
The federal New Democrats want to amend the Liberal government's electoral reform legislation to scrap the proposal to push back the vote by a week and consequently secure pensions for dozens of MPs, CTV News has learned.
Israel's war cabinet minister moves to dissolve parliament: statement
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz's centrist party has proposed holding a vote to dissolve parliament in a bid to bring about an early election, his party said in a statement on Thursday.
DEVELOPING BMO clients face outages in Canada, U.S. following data centre fire alarm
Bank of Montreal clients on both sides of the border Thursday morning have reported outages with banking services. BMO said its technical team is investigating.
Exorbitant fees get Gazans out with no help from Ottawa
The comforting sound of giggling grandchildren has chased away the cloud of anxiety that has loomed over Mohammed and Intisar Nofal's home for the past seven months.
Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., begins RBC Canadian Open defence
Nick Taylor begins the defence of his RBC Canadian Open title this morning.
B.C. mortgage broker ran $270-million Ponzi scheme, then fled Canada, bankruptcy trustee says
The trustee appointed to manage the bankruptcies of a Victoria mortgage company and its owner has concluded that they committed "numerous offences" and operated as a "massive Ponzi scheme."
Want to turn off Meta AI? You can't - but there are some workarounds
If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you've probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.