Syrian Refugee Raped And Killed A 13-Year-Old Girl In Canada, His Defense, She Was Asking For It

The 13-year-old girl who Ibrahim Ali is accused of murdering in a British Columbia park wasn't the “innocent” depicted in a “rose-coloured” portrayal by the Crown at trial, his lawyer says.

Kevin McCullough told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in his closing arguments that the version of the girl's lifestyle presented by the Crown is “at best, a partial picture” or “at worst, a lie.”

He said Crown witnesses who could speak to her character, including the girl's mother, were often not the closest people to the girl and were often contradictory in their testimony about her behaviour.

He said the jury heard testimony that the girl often avoided her mom's phone calls, liked to “endlessly ride SkyTrain” alone and sometimes fell asleep in the park.

McCullough said Thursday that Crown witnesses amounted to advocates, which he said was clear from the fact that several referred to her as a child and this was an effort to “play on (their) emotions.”

“She (was) a teenager,” McCullough emphasized again Friday, noting she was 13 years and nine months old at the time of her death.

The body of the teen, who can't be named because of a publication ban, was found in a Burnaby, B.C., park in July 2017, just hours after her mother reported her missing.