By Tony Spears
Ottawa Sun
For a second day, the 13-year-old boy took the witness stand to face down his Mountie father.
And on this day, it seemed to be the father — the man accused of chaining him up, starving and torturing him — who blinked first.
After another morning of traumatizing evidence — horrific allegations have become hum drum in this ghastly trial — the 44-year-old moved to an anteroom Thursday morning, leaving defence lawyer Robert Carew to make his apologies.
Carew told the judge the man — who, along with his co-accused wife is free on bail — was having a medical issue that prevented him from participating in the trial “in a meaningful way.”
The remedy? A solo, two-hour drive to see a Montreal psychologist.
Through his lawyer, he declined an Ottawa police offer to bring him to an Ottawa doctor and Carew pressed for an adjournment.
Crown prosecutor Marie Dufort was visibly irritated.
“If he’s able to drive (alone) for two hours I don’t see why he can’t be here,” she told the judge. “We have a child (on the stand) and we know what he’s been through.”
Maranger gave the Mountie the benefit of the doubt. But the judge demanded “concrete evidence” of the man’s medical woes when the trial resumes Friday morning.
Before the interruption, there had been yet more evidence of brutality.
In a June 13, 2013 police interview played to the court, the boy outlined how his father had half-drowned him in a toilet.
“He put my head in,” the boy said.
“Why would he do that?” asked Det. Johanne Marelic.
“Punish me,” said the boy.
“Could you breathe or — you said you were drowning. Is that what it felt like?”
“Mmm hmm,” the boy said.
Then there was the family vacation to Florida.
Before his family frolicked on the beach, the boy said his dad would tie him up in their rental home.
The boy wasn’t even allowed to use the washroom, the court heard.
“I had to go on myself,” the boy said.
He implicated his stepmother as well.
“Was she always there when your dad did stuff to you?” Marelic asked.
“Most of the time,” said the boy
“He would tell her what he’s done?” the detective asked.
“He would tell her because they say they’re one person. … My mom would tell my dad to calm down on me but he would, like, say “No, no, no.”
The father spared her the sight of the burns the boy said he inflicted on the boy’s genitals with a barbecue lighter.
But the boy believed she knew anyway.
“I think so,” he said. “My dad tells her everything.”
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