Doreze Marvin Beals's human trafficking trial hears from alleged victim

A teenage girl who says she wasassaulted by two men and held against her willtestified Wednesday that Doreze Marvin Bealstold her she wouldbe taken to Toronto to work as a prostitute.

Beals is charged withhuman trafficking,gang sexual assault, kidnapping and other offences related to the allegations from April 2014. He is on trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

The complainant, who was 15 at the time, is the first witness to testify.

The co-accused in the case, Andre Jerome Gray, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of confinement and assault. The remaining charges against Gray will be dealt with when he is sentenced Jan. 15.

CBC reporter Blair Rhodes is live tweeting from Beals's trial.

The girl testifiedfrom behind a screen. Whilepeople in the court could see her, she couldn't see anyone other than the judge, a sheriff's deputy and a court worker who sat with her in the witness box.

Her testimony was punctuated by long pauses and occasional sobs. She also asked the judge for breaks.

The girl told court she went to North Preston by bus to visit friends. She had met Andre Gray over Facebook and his home was one of her first stops.

She testifiedshe went with Gray to a trailer where she said the teen sexually assaulted her.

The girl said Bealswas at the trailer during the assault and grabbed her by the hair and the arm, forcingher to go with him to his house. When they arrived, the girl said he dropped her through a trap door to a cellar where he left her for a time.

The girl said Beals told her she would be going to Toronto to work. She told court she understood that to mean she would become a prostitute.

Family came looking for her

The girl said Beals took her from the cellar back to the trailer and that he later returned her to the cellar. During her second stint in the cellar, she testified she heard shouting outside and recognized her mother's voice.

The girl said she started screaming and banging on a small cellar window to try to let her mother know she was there.

The girl said she heard loud noises, what she thought were gunshots. She then heard the sound of a car speeding off and running footsteps.

Beals thentook her out of the cellar, she testified, dragged her into his bedroom and then pushed her out the window. She said she started running and eventually ran into a carload of her relatives who hadcome looking for her.

Beals's lawyer, Laura McCarthy, spent Wednesday afternoon cross-examining the girl on her memory of the events. McCarthy had not finished her questioning by the end of the day, so the girl will be back on the stand Thursday.