Man accused of sexually assaulting teen says he thought youth was older

BRIDGEWATER, N.S. – A Halifax man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy while the alleged victim was confined in a cabin told police he was told the youth was not a minor.

A video of a four-hour interview John Leonard MacKean gave to the RCMP was submitted as evidence and is being played before a jury today in the province’s Supreme Court.

In the video, MacKean says Wayne Alan Cunningham, another man accused in the case who later died, told him that the youth was 21 or 22 years old.

MacKean also tells RCMP Cpl. Luc Cote that he was at the cabin for about 20 minutes but declines to say specifically what occurred while he was there.

The 64-year-old MacKean has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.

On Tuesday, the teenager testified that he was blindfolded and his hands and feet were chained to a bed when he was sexually assaulted by a man on Sept. 20, 2012.

The 17-year-old identified a small black sleeping mask he says was used to blindfold him at the scene of the alleged sex assault at the cabin, located about 130 kilometres southwest of Halifax.

Last June, David James LeBlanc was sentenced in the case to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats and breach of conditions.

An agreed statement of facts in LeBlanc’s case said he offered the teen a painting job and drove him in a van from Halifax to Lunenburg County in September 2012 on the pretext of picking up painting supplies.

The youth later escaped and a woman reported seeing a barefoot teenager at her doorstep, chained at his wrists and ankles.

LeBlanc was arrested in northern Ontario in September 2012 after a Canada-wide manhunt. At the time, police were also searching for Cunningham, whose body was later found near the area where LeBlanc was arrested. Foul play was not suspected in his death.