Kingston canal homicide victims feared father

Three teenage girls who drowned in a Kingston, Ont.,canal feared their father so much theywanted to leave their family home, and kept secret boyfriends prior to their deaths, Crown prosecutors told a jury Thursday in a groundbreaking murder trial.

Prosecutorslaid out their case Thursday morning, arguingthat a Montreal husband and wife and their adult sonshould be foundguilty of first-degree murder in the drowning deaths of the couple's three teenage girls and the husband's first wife.

The family members couldn't bear the "treachery" of thethreesisters having boyfriends, so they drowned them and the father's first wife, pushing a car into a Kingston canal and staging the scene to look like an implausible accident, the court heard Thursday.

Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yehya were arrested and charged with multiple murdersin July 2009, three weeksafter the bodies of their daughtersZainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17,and Geeti Shafia, 13were fished out of a sunkencar found ina canal lock near Kingston.

The body of Shafia's first wife Rona Mohammed was alsoin the car.

Shafia's son Hamid Mohammad Shafia was arrested and chargedalong with his parents.

Crown says teens wanted to leave family home

Prosecutorsat the trial painted a portrait of a troubled family in turmoil prior to their daughters' deaths.

Originally from Afghanistan, the family was living in Montreal's St-Leonard borough where theolder teenagegirls kept secret boyfriends, despitefearing their father would kill them.

The Crown said the teenshad complained of being beaten by their father and brother at home, and their school had repeatedly called youth protection.

The eldest daughter, Zainab Shafia, had run away and both of the other two girls had repeatedly told authorities they were afraid and wanted to leave the family home.

The Crown detailed evidence retrieved from a family laptop that showed someone did a Google search on the terms "where to commit a murder," and "bodies of water."

Mohammad Shafia sobbed as prosecutorsbroadcast photos of his three daughters in the courtroomwhile hiswife Tooba Mohammad Yehya kept hereyes downcast.

All three accused have pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.

The trial will be the largest ever held in Kingston, and is considered groundbreaking because of its complexity.

Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yehya only speak Dari, so the trial will proceed in English and French with Dari translation, a first in Canada.

During that time, Crown prosecutors will present forensic evidence and could call more than 50 witnesses, including relatives from Europe to argue their case.

The trial is expected to last three months.