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By Canadian Press

Naked man shown in video at British sailors’ sexual assault trial

Sep 6, 2018 | 6:00 AM

HALIFAX — The trial of two British sailors accused of sexual assaulting a woman at a Halifax-area military base was shown a video Thursday of what a military police officer said was one of the accused massaging a naked man.

Darren Smalley and Simon Radford are charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and participating in a sexual assault involving one or more people in the Warrior Block accommodations at CFB Shearwater.

Sgt. Tyler Bruce-Hayes, who investigated the alleged incident in April 2015, told Justice Patrick Duncan that a number of electronic devices were seized from the barracks after a search warrant was obtained.

Bruce-Hayes said videos and photos were extracted from those devices. He identified Radford, 34, as the man in one short video clip that was played in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

“A male has no clothes on lying on his stomach on the bed being massaged by Mr. Radford,” said Bruce-Hayes, the Crown’s first witness, when asked to describe what was happening in the clip.

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Laughter can be heard throughout the video, as an unidentified naked man is shown being massaged on the back of his legs before the camera moves in close to the man’s buttocks.

Smalley, 38, appeared unable to hold back laughter as the video was played loudly on multiple monitors in the courtroom.

Video surveillance from 11:55 p.m. on April 9, 2015, from a beer store drive-thru was also played, showing several cases of beer being put into the trunk of a white van by an attendant.

Bruce-Hayes told the court that the complainant and a friend who was with her that night had both told him during their interviews that they rode in a white minivan to pick up beer.

Earlier Thursday, the sergeant reviewed a number of photos of items that were seized as part of the investigation, including photos showing a bra and underwear the complainant was wearing during the alleged sexual assault.

He also identified photos of biological samples that were taken during an examination of the woman by a nurse at a Halifax hospital in the early hours of April 11, 2015.

Bruce-Hayes told the court Wednesday that he interviewed the complainant — whose identity is protected by a publication ban — for about two hours following the examination, and that she appeared upset.

“There were parts of the interview that she was crying,” he said.

Bruce-Hayes is expected to take the stand again Friday for cross-examination by defence lawyers Ian Hutchison and David Bright.

The accused, members of the Royal Navy, were participating in a naval hockey tournament in Halifax at the time of the alleged sexual assault.

The complainant is expected to testify at the judge-alone trial, which will last roughly six weeks.

Crown lawyer Eric Taylor has said he will call about 12 witnesses.

Both Smalley and Radford are not in custody, but are under strict bail conditions.

The Crown had originally charged four men, but charges against two of the sailors have been dropped.

Several days into a preliminary inquiry in April 2016, charges were dropped against Craig Stoner, while charges against Joshua Finbow were withdrawn in December.

The Crown said the prospect of convicting Finbow became unrealistic after Duncan deemed his police statement inadmissible at trial.

Follow (at)AlyThomson on Twitter.

Aly Thomson, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press