Court hears from 9-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by Manitoba priest last year
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experiencedтАЛ тАЛтАЛтАЛsexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A now nine-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a priest last year in Little Grand Rapids First Nation told court on Tuesday she remembers feeling scared as the priest allegedly walked her to his bedroom inside the church that day.
The girl, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, said that Arul Savari then took his clothes off. She said Savari, who she called “Father Arul,” told her he loved her, touched her legs and her “belly”┬аand kissed her.
Savari, who sat behind a screen that prevented the girl from seeing him as she testified, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, sexual interference and forcible confinement on the first day of his judge-alone trial before Court of King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg.
Court heard both direct testimony from the girl, who clutched a stuffed animal as she spoke from the witness box, and a video recording of the statement she gave after the alleged assault in 2023.
“When I was at the church, I guess, that priest тАФ you know that priest who works at the church?” she said to the person taking her statement in the video played in court.┬а“Father Arul. He did something gross to me.”
The girl said as she left the church that day, Savari told her not to tell her mom what happened. But she said she did anyway, which led to police being contacted about the alleged incident in her home community, a remote First Nation about 265 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
WATCH |┬аCourt hears from 9-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by Manitoba priest:
Court heard from a nine-year-old girl today who says she was sexually assaulted by a Manitoba priest last year. The girl testified during the first day of Arul Savari’s trial that the priest told her he loved her and kissed her. The alleged assault happened in Little Grand Rapids First Nation in 2023.
Court heard┬аthe girl also alleged┬аthat the same day, Savari┬аasked her to shower with him, held her hand so tightly she worried he would┬аto break it,┬аthreatened to cut her finger with a knife and tried to make her sniff gas.
She also alleged she was able to briefly lock Savari in a room by putting a chair under a door handle before he broke out.
Defence questions┬аgirl’s story
Savari’s lawyers raised questions about some of those allegations, saying that the girl didn’t initially share all those details when she reported what she said happened to her mother.
Defence lawyer Tom Rees also noted inconsistencies in the account the girl gave in her statement, including about whether Savari’s underwear had been removed.
Rees instead suggested none of the things the girl alleged actually happened, in a line of questioning the child┬аrepeatedly responded to with a soft “yes.”
“I say that while you were at the church that┬аnobody tried to touch you on your belly and kiss you. That’s what I say really happened. Is that right?” Rees asked in one of the last of those questions,┬аbefore Justice Greenberg suggested the girl was getting confused by the way the questions were worded.
“It would be odd that she would┬аbe agreeing to all of these propositions,” the judge said.
That led to the girl being asked to leave the courtroom as the lawyers and judge discussed the best way to phrase the questions in a way the girl could understand.
When the girl returned, Rees asked her a few more questions that included a suggestion about what the defence says┬аreally happened at the church that day.
He alleged┬аthe girl and her sister were supposed to get paid to help clean the church тАФ┬аbut when the girl’s sister didn’t show up,┬аSavari told the girl to go home and come back when her sister was with her.
“So when he told you to go home, you felt upset about that. And that’s because you were there and you wanted to do the cleaning and then have┬аthe money,” Rees┬аsaid.
Manitoba RCMP announced the charges against Savari┬аin May 2023 and said they’d┬аidentified other possible victims.
Mounties spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre said in an email Tuesday that the investigation into Savari “is still very much ongoing at this time.”
Savari was also the priest at the nearby┬аPauingassi First Nation, RCMP said at the time of his arrest. He’s originally from India and lived in Winnipeg and had been in Canada for six years at the time of his arrest, and had served in Little Grand Rapids for the same amount of time, Mounties said.
Following his arrest, Savari┬аwas suspended from all ministerial duties and “forbidden to have anything to do with former parishioners and children,” according to┬аa 2023 news release from the┬аArchdiocese of St. Boniface.┬а
Savari’s trial continues Wednesday.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. тАЛтАЛIf you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
