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Accuser testifies in Saugus Snapchat rape trial – Metro US

Accuser testifies in Saugus Snapchat rape trial

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A teenage girl who alleged that she was raped by two acquaintances in an incident that was recorded and posted on Snapchat testified in Saugus court on Thursday.

The teenage girl told jurors that she had changed her story several times after the alleged rape because she did not want the accused pair, a man and woman, to go to jail, WCVB reported.

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Rashad Deihim, now 21, and Kailyn Bonia, now 20, stand accused of sexually assaulting the then-16-year-old on a night in September 2014 in a wooded area behind a Saugus elementary school, CBS Boston reported. After the trio initially met up, their encounter turned sexual, a fact which defense attorneys say was consensual.

Prosecutors have argued that the 16-year-old girl was too heavily intoxicated from alcohol, marijuana and cocaine to consent, WCVB stated. On Wednesday, another friend testified that the alleged victim tried to stop the attack but was too incoherent to articulate herself.

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The incident, which took place on an abandoned couch, was recorded and posted on Snapchat, causing at least one viewer to capture screenshots of the video which were then used in court, the Boston Herald reported.

When asked about her memories of that night, the accuser said, “I remember [Kailyn Bonia] stroking my hair and trying to make out with me, and I said, ‘I know what you’re doing.’ And then I remember flashing lights, a baseball field and a camera,” CBS Boston stated, adding that a doctor who treated the girl afterward said she had to be revived twice with Narcan.

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The girl also explained in court that she had changed her account of that night’s events because of her own fear and her desire for Deihim and Bonia not to go to jail, WCVB reported.