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Penticton  

Bobbitt hearing continues

The dangerous offender hearing for David Bobbitt continued on Tuesday in a Penticton court room.

The first portion of the hearing concluded in July, and resumed with four witnesses testifying in regards to an earlier incident in 2007.

During questioning by crown counsel Nashina Devji, the first witness, Const. Jeff Cranton, who was with the Penticton RCMP at the time, described injuries sustained by an alleged sexual assault victim in February of 2007.

Cranton said that while speaking with the woman in an interview room, he saw bruising on the bridge of her nose and cheeks and marks on her neck.

It appeared that she feared for her safety and she was crying throughout the statement, he recalled.

Defence lawyer James Pennington then asked the witness about the scratches and if they were still bleeding or had scabbed over.

The witness recalled they were scabbed over. 

He further asked if the officer took any notes with respect to her sobriety, to which he responded he did not take any notes. He answered no, when Pennington asked if he noticed any odour.

Second witness Marlo Riley, a cab driver, told crown counsel, he picked up the alleged victim from a market on Skaha Lake Road in February of 2007.

He recalled it was a lady and a couple of dogs, and she got in with her dogs and asked him to take her to hospital, but stop at a friend's place first on the Penticton Indian Reserve.

He said the woman was crying the whole time and very upset, but he did not smell alcohol on her.

Defence lawyer James Pennington asked the witness if other than telling the driver where she wanted to go if there was any chit chat.

The witness said no. He also said he did not detect an odour of alcohol on the woman.

When Pennington said, you didn't notice any physical injury, the witness said, no, he couldn't really tell.

Other witnesses included Jean Pounder, presently the front counter clerk for the Penticton RCMP, and Cpl. Warren Kraft, who works in the forensic identification section for the Penticton RCMP.

Pounder described being responsible for releasing an item to Bobbitt, believed to be a digital recorder or recording, on June 4, 2007.

Pennington asked the witness to specifically think back to that day, but the witness could not give him specifics from back in 2007.

Kraft, the last witness of the day, talked about photographs he took of the woman, showing some of the injuries, and pictures of stains taken at the location where the alleged sexual assault took place.

Pennington asked when Kraft attended at the trailer, if he met anyone there and if he recalled when the search warrant was placed. Kraft said sometime after 8:30 p.m.

The hearing is expected to continue on Wednesday and Friday of this week and Monday, Tuesday and Friday next week.

Witnesses on Wednesday are expected to testify regarding the alleged incident in 2007 and the more recent incident in 2011.

No charges were laid in the 2007 incident, but Bobbitt was charged with a violent assault on a young woman at Dave's Second Hand Store in Penticton in 2011. Her toddler was found unharmed nearby.

He pleaded guilty to the counts he was facing in April of 2013.

Crown counsel, said Tuesday, that as far as they knew, the victim in the 2011 incident would not be called to testify.



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