The stepson of a man accused of sexually abusing two of his stepdaughters testified Monday that they spent "a lot of time upstairs" in the accused's bedroom.
The stepfather, who cannot be named under a court-ordered publication ban against information identifying the alleged victims, faces 14 sex-related charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference of a person under 14 years old, publishing child pornography and bestiality. The trial began last fall and resumed this week.
The stepson, now 18 years old, said relations between him and the stepfather were strained and he was often disciplined or doing chores.
Asked how he knew his two sisters were in the bedroom so much, the stepson said he noticed one or both would always be in the bedroom when he went upstairs to get a new chore from the accused, which would occur four or five times a day.
He said the bedroom door would be open during the day and the accused and one of the stepdaughters would usually be in there playing on computers or watching television.
At night, the door would be closed and locked when the stepson went up to check in and say good night. He would knock on the door around 9 p.m. and it usually took 15 to 30 seconds for someone to answer, usually one of the stepdaughters.
He said it was very rare that the older of the two would not be in there and both were in the bedroom "sometimes three or four times a week." When he saw them, one of the sisters would usually wear one of the accused's T-shirts and boxer shorts and the other would wear a longer version of one of the T-shirts.
He said he first noticed the door would be locked at about the time two live-feed video surveillance cameras were installed in the house. One camera was installed "just below the 12" in a wall clock and showed the area just outside the bedroom and the stairs leading up. The other showed the kitchen downstairs and the view coming up to the bedroom.
One or both of the stepdaughters often came out of the bedroom in the morning and "always looked pretty haggard." The older of the two was able to sleep in after she graduated, the stepson said, but also testified the pattern began before that time.
Their mother was studying for medical school during the day and worked night shift so she would be just getting home in the mornings. "Usually, she would just go right to bed," the stepson testified.
The door would be unlocked at that point, he testified.
The son said he had little communication with the sisters because he was usually being disciplined - often by being forced to stand on a pan facing a corner all day or sitting in a chair in the living room facing away from the bedroom - or doing chores.
He was also often confined to a cot in the garage and fed only bread and water, he testified.
He left the home to live with extended family members on a handful of occasions for increasing lengths of time, before leaving for good in February 2009, at age 14, two days after he was told he had "to clean up my act or leave."
Religion was a huge factor in the household, he testified, and the stepfather would make them pray to "exorcise the demons out of our bodies" whenever they violated a rule or talked back and he claimed a special relationship with God.
"He told us that he could pray to God and God would answer him," the stepson testified. "He would tell him what's right and wrong."
The two stepdaughters and the mother gave testimony when the trial began in September. A further four weeks had been booked for this month but it now appears most of the the Crown prosecution's witnesses will have completed testimony by the end of this week.
In the interim, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly, who is hearing the case alone at the Prince George courthouse, ruled as admissible computers containing graphic images the police had seized at the time of his arrest. The computers were seized without a warrant but Romilly found there were exigent circumstances allowing police to take the action.
