Friend of teen killed in Burnaby, B.C., testifies behind screen to avoid seeing accused killer

A close friend of the teenager who was found dead in a park in Burnaby, B.C., nearly six years ago testified at the alleged killer's trial on Thursday, taking the stand behind a white screen so she would not have to look at the man accused of taking her friend's life.

The woman, now 19, had asked the court to put up abarrier to block her view of Ibrahim Ali, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in B.C. Supreme Court last month. Justice Lance Bernard approved her request, askingthe jury not todraw negative assumptions about the witnesson accountof the screen.

"Similarly, you may not draw any adverse inference against the accused because the witness is testifying behind a screen," Bernard told jurors.

During her testimony, the witness told the court she saw herself as the victim's closest friend in the last months of her life. The 13-year-old's body was found on the forest floor in Central Parkhours after her mother reported her missing on July 18, 2017.

CBC News is not publishing the witness's name as she was a minor at the time of the killing, while the victim's name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

On Thursday, the woman described a typical friendship between teenage girls. She said she and the victim shared a friend group after meetingin their Grade 8 math class at Moscrop High School in Burnaby in fall 2016.

She said they sat together in class, bussed home to the same neighbourhood and often studied at Burnaby Public Library or shopped at Metrotown. When they weren't together in person, she said they would sometimes message or speak on the phone.

"We spent time [together] every day," the womansaid, testifying in Mandarin through an interpreter.

Ali sat in the back of the courtroom in a dark suit as the woman spoke, using a black headset to listento the testimony through his own Kurdish interpreter.

The woman told the jury she never knew the victim to drink, use drugs, wear makeup, go to parties or spend any time with boys. She said shewas instead interested in anime, cartoons, sketching or playing with friends in the park.

The girls were in summer school together when her friend was killed, court heard. The witness said shesaw her at the playground outside their school during a fire drill just before 11 a.m. on the day she died.

In two clips filmed by the witness and shown to the jury, the victim is seen in a black T-shirt and smiling on the school grounds.

The witness said she heard of her friend's death the following day and later gave an interview to police.

Earlier in the trial, Crown prosecutors told jurors they would be hearingevidence the girl was passing through Central Park when Ali dragged her off the path,sexually assaulted herand strangled her.

Defence counsel will cross-examine the victim's friend on Friday.

The trial is expected to continue for several weeks.