Girl testifies she was forced to provide sexual services to Ont. man

In a voice punctuated by loud sobs and long pauses, a 17-year-old girl testified Wednesday about how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by an Ontario businessman in a hotel room in downtown Halifax two years ago.

The girl is testifying at the trial of Paul Christopher Coburn, who's facing five sex-related charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching.

The girl, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was 15 at the time of the alleged February 2017 incident. She is testifying from behind a screen so she does not have to look at Coburn in the courtroom.

Wednesday marks the second day of the trial.

In her initial testimony, the girl testified how she was lured into the sex trade by Leeanthon Oliver, who has pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges for selling the services of her and another teen.

Pimp refused to testify

Oliver spent two days in a holding cell in the basement of the courthouse on Spring Garden Road in downtown Halifax. However, lawyers for Coburn and the Crown indicated on Wednesday morning that they would not be calling him to testify and there is no point in continuing to hold him.

Oliver is being returned to prison to resume serving his eight-year sentence.

'He owned me,' victim says of pimp

The girl testified that she first met Oliver through the social media app Snapchat. She said his profile indicated he was 18, when in fact he was in his 30s.

They agreed to meet in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant in New Glasgow, N.S. The girl said Oliver and another man picked her up in a black SUV and drove her to Oliver's home in Pockwock, a suburb northwest of Halifax. The girl said she was taken to the home's unfinished basement where there was a mattress on the bare concrete floor. She said Oliver told her she was going to make him lots of money. She said at that point she felt "that I wasn't going home and that he owned me."

Feb. 21, 2017, details

On the night of Feb. 21, 2017, the girl said Oliver and another man drove her to the Marriott Hotel on the Halifax waterfront and sent her inside to meet a man she only knew as "Paul."

Hotel security video, which is being used as evidence at this trial, showed the girl entering the hotel around 11:15 p.m. and leaving about 30 minutes later.

She said she went to a room on the fifth floor where a man let her in, told her to undress and lie on the bed. In a voice that was barely above a whisper, the girl said the man forced her to perform oral sex and then had forced intercourse with her. The girl said she was given money — she doesn't remember how much — and later handed it over to Oliver.

Conflicting statements

In the days immediately following the alleged incident, the girl gave three statements to police. Those statements include substantial differences from her testimony this week. For instance, she told police that Oliver accompanied her to the hotel room and that they were joined by two other men in the room. The hotel video only showed her.

When Coburn's lawyer tried to press her to explain the discrepancies, the girl became even more emotional than she had been throughout her earlier testimony. She told court she'd tried to block memories of that night out of her head for her own health. She said she has PTSD and withheld details from her earlier versions of events because she didn't want her mother or the public to hear what happened.

"I was a little girl," she sobbed.

Her testimony continues Thursday.