A trial for a young man accused of posting pornographic photographs on Facebook taken during a rave in Pitt Meadows two years ago resumed Tuesday with two more witnesses describing what they saw that night.
Both teens stressed the couple photographed during a Sept. 10, 2010 party were having consensual sex. The victim however continues to maintain she was sexually assaulted.
Paige Morgan, who was 16 at the time, told the court she watched the couple copulating in a field on a property off Harris Road.
You would have called police if you believed there was an assault taking place, asked Marvin Stern, representing Dennis John Allen Warrington, who is accused of posting the photos on Facebook.
Warrington faces one count each of possessing and distributing child porn, since the girl in the photographs was 16 at the time of the rave.
“Was there any attempt to hide what was going on?” asked Stern.
“She and the guy were not trying to hide at all,” replied Morgan.
“It was out in the open.”
Morgan did not know the identity of the couple, but later learned the girl’s name.
She also saw the girl at the MacDonald’s restaurant on Harris Road after the rave.
“She was bawling her eyes out because she lost her phone,” Morgan testified, adding that later “[the victim] seemed happy, like nothing was wrong.”
She also told the court that the people closest to the victim were older, Indo-Canadian men, one who had a video camera. None of the men have testified during the trial.
Following the rave, photographs of the teens having sex began to spread via text messages and social media.
Stern asked Morgan if what happened at the rave became a hot topic of conversation amongst teens in high school and whether there was any suggestion that the teen had been sexually assaulted.
“From the very beginning, everyone has said it was not rape,” she replied.
The second witness, Brittany Plamondon, 18, testified that she was alerted to the couple at the rave because “people were laughing,” at the girl.
She watched briefly, then she walked away.
Warrington’s trial resumed Tuesday after a month-long hiatus, prompted by defence’s call of a mistrial.
Warrington is the only adult still facing charges in connection with the rave.
Colton McMorris was charged with sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl photographed at the rave, but the charge was stayed in February after Crown found the available evidence was unlikely to land a conviction.
Four more days have been set aside for the trial, which continues in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court at the end of January.
The young woman has yet to testify at the trial. She was scheduled to take the stand in October, but her testimony has been repeatedly delayed.