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 experienced​ ​​​sexual 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" and 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 — you know that priest who works at the church?" she said to the person taking her statement in the video played in court. "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 | Court hears from 9-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by Manitoba priest:

Court heard the girl also alleged that the same day, Savari asked her to shower with him, held her hand so tightly she worried he would to break it, threatened 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.

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 repeatedly responded to with a soft "yes."

"I say that while you were at the church that nobody 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, before Justice Greenberg suggested the girl was getting confused by the way the questions were worded.