The trial of Owen Labrie, a 19-year-old who was bound for Harvard, has cast a harsh light on hidden traditions and sexual escapades at St Paul’s, a $56,000 (pounds 35,543) a year prep school whose alumni include John Kerry, the US secretary of state. Labrie is charged with raping a 15-year-old freshman as part of the Senior Salute, a practice of sexual conquest at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Concord.
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During nearly four hours of interrogation by police, Labrie maintained he never sexually penetrated the 15-year-old girl last May while they were kissing on the fourth floor of the elite prep school’s science center.
During testimony earlier Tuesday the lead detective in the case told the court that Labrie said the girl’s underwear remained on throughout, preventing him from taking the encounter further. An internal examination did not yield any links to Labrie’s DNA. The student is scheduled to testify this Wednesday.
Labrie contends the two had consensual sexual contact but did not have intercourse.
While others testified that Thomson and Labrie were in a Senior Salute contest, Thomson denied that account. Labrie replied: “Just pulled every trick in the book”.
As she says in an affidavit, Curtin testified that Labrie told her he had a playful encounter with girl but stopped short of having sex after a moment of “divine inspiration”.
But Solovaara had previously told investigators the opposite, and the judge reportedly told jurors that they could use this evidence to inform their assessment of his credibility.
Curtin said Labrie told her “it would be the end of my life”, if he had sex with the girl, The Boston Globe reported.
She said she did not immediately report the incident as a rape because she did not want to create a scene at a time when her family was at the school for her older sister’s graduation. “I was raped”, she said.
[Curtin] said he acknowledged putting a condom on during a “consensual encounter”.
Curtin said Labrie became frustrated because detectives kept asking about the Senior Salute. His accuser is seated in the front row with her parents behind the prosecution table.
Both sides have relied on emails and Facebook messages between the teenagers as well as testimony from Labrie’s friends, many of whom are now at Ivy League universities.
Concord police Detective Julie Curtin testifies about her interview… He sent her his college essay, and at one point asked, “Do you know anything about me?”
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She said he attempted to distract from the conversation by listing his accomplishments at school.
