Friday, March 21, 2014

UPDATE: Bridgewater Sexual Assault Case Goes To The Jury

The sexual assault case in Bridgewater Supreme Court involving a Halifax area man is now in the hands of a jury. Deliberations began this morning after the panel was given final instructions from the judge. John Leonard MacKean is facing charges of sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under the age of eighteen. The allegations involve performing sexual acts on a teenage boy who was blindfolded and chained up in a cabin in Upper Chelsea. MacKean was arrested in a hotel in Fredericton in November 2012. That was after investigators found a cell phone in Northern Ontario belonging to Wayne Cunningham - who was on the run from police. The phone contained text messages discussing a get together involving MacKean and Cunningham. Cunningham and David Leblanc were the masterminds behind the kidnapping and confinement of the teenager. Cunningham's body was found in Ontario while Leblanc is serving an 11 year prison sentence for his role in the incident. MacKean is the third and final person accused in the case. The trial was originally expected to last only three days but now is in it's fifth.