Boy recounts 1994 park attack on tape played at trial of alleged sex predator
Richard Neil has pleaded not guilty to 17 historical charges, including kidnapping, sexual assault
WARNING:
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This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
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As police drove him to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, the 10-year-old boy kept asking if they were nearly there.
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they → drive → Children
"My stomach's turning," he told the two officers, as he lay in the back of the vehicle.
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he → turn → vehicle
Thirty-two years after the child was tied to a tree and sexually assaulted, an audio recording of his September 1994 interview with police was played for the jury Monday at the trial of his alleged attacker.
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recording → tie → attacker
Richard Neil has pleaded not guilty to 17 charges related to the incident, as well as two other similar past attacks on an eight-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl.
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Neil → plead → boy
The list of allegations includes kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and administering a stupefying drug.
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list → include → drug
The three attacks in southern Ontario parks between 1992 and 1995 confounded investigators for three decades.
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attacks → confound → decades
Advances in DNA technology — including investigative genetic genealogy — finally helped police link the three crime scenes to Neil, a prosecutor told the jury Monday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Brampton, Ont.
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prosecutor → include → Brampton
Neil, now 67, was arrested in 2024.
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Neil → arrest → 2024
The court heard the former postal worker doesn't dispute what happened to the three children, but insists he wasn't involved.
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he → hear → children
"He did a lot of rude things to me," the 10-year-old boy told Peel Regional Police about the unidentified attacker in 1994.
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boy → do → 1994
The victim, whose identity is covered by a publication ban, recounted saying hello to a stranger in Brampton's Norton Place Park after school that day.
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identity → cover → school
They struck up a conversation.
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The man claimed he had lost his wallet with $900 inside.
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he → claim → 900
The boy said the pair walked around the park and chatted on a bench, until the man's mood suddenly soured, ostensibly accusing the boy of stealing his wallet.
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mood → say → wallet
"He tied my foot to the tree ... so I couldn't get away," the boy is heard telling police on the audio tape.
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boy → tie → tape
He described a series of lurid acts carried out by the man in a wooded area of the park, including urination, oral sex and anal penetration.
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"It hurt," the boy told police.
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boy → hurt → police
After the attacker got away, the boy ran out of the woods, exiting near a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion adjacent to the park.
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boy → get → park
Witness recalls seeing boy run from park
David Kilpatrick, now a 71-year-old retiree, testified Monday about stopping at the Legion that evening to have a beer and play a round of pool.
Everything changed when he spotted the child wearing only his pants.
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child → recall → pants
"I see this young boy coming out of the woods … shirt in hand, screaming, so I knew something was wrong," Kilpatrick told the court.
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Kilpatrick → see → court
"You have to call my mom," he said the boy urged him.
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boy → have → him
"I've been attacked."
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I → attack → ?
Kilpatrick said the boy provided a basic description of the attacker: a white man with black hair, wearing a grey track suit.
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boy → say → suit
He ran the boy into the Legion, told the bartender to call 911 and rushed into the woods himself to find the assailant, to no avail.
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Kilpatrick fought back tears Monday as he spoke from the witness box.
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he → fight → box
He said he promised the 10-year-old that day he would find his attacker.
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he → say → attacker
"I was wound up like a clock," he told the court.
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he → wind → court
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DNA tied 3 assaults to 1 man: Crown
That evening, the boy led investigators to the spot where he'd been attacked.
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he → tie → spot
DNA recovered from the Brampton park — as well as semen and men's underwear worn as a mask, each found separately at the scenes of two other assaults — proved crucial in linking the three incidents to one man, Crown attorney Shazin Karim told the jury.
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In the first attack at Kitchener's Idlewood Park on Aug. 21, 1992, a boy said he'd been lured away from his sister and a friend by a man who promised to show him dozens of bicycles in a wooded area, Karim said.
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Karim → say → area
She told the jury the assailant held a pocket knife and threatened to kill the eight-year-old "if he said a word."
On Aug. 31, 1995, at Oakville's Wildwood Park, a girl out walking her dog was approached by a man who threatened her with what appeared to be a loaded gun, Karim told the court in her opening statement.
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Karim → tell → statement
She said the 15-year-old cried as the man set up a video camera to record the assault.
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man → say → assault
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