One of the darkest moments in Ottawa’s tight-knit Congolese community unfolded on July 3, 2015, when a young woman was viciously degraded by jealous attackers who kidnapped her and later pinned her down and applied hair-removal cream to her vagina, only to broadcast it on Facebook.
Sadly, there were a handful of online videos — viewed around the world — that showed the young, naked woman crying and screaming as she was attacked.
This is the police theory in a case that has shocked Ottawa’s Congolese community.
In court Thursday, Assistant Crown Attorney Louise Tansey said the videos were traumatizing to watch.
The kidnapping and sex attack trial of Eunice “Chou Chou” Ilunga, 43, Safi “Lolo” Mahinja, 27, Sandrine Tomba-Kalema, 37, and Nina “Milka”Raul, 34, began on Thursday.
In a preview of Crown evidence to be heard at trial, Tansey detailed a terrifying, videotaped attack of a 21-year-old woman who was targeted after she fooled around with another woman’s boyfriend.
After the kidnapping and assault, the accused filmed a video of themselves celebrating the vicious attack, according to the Crown. In this video, the accused are seen and heard singing along to a song on the radio as they are driving away. They made up their own lyrics to Brigade’s Affaire de la rencune Rondo, and by doing so documented their attack, according to the Crown.
They left their target’s home ransacked after they kidnapped her, according to the Crown.
One of the accused’s sisters has told this newspaper that her sister, Nina Raul, was only trying to help the alleged victim, not harm her.
The Crown’s first witness on Thursday was a Congolese man who was training to be a police officer at the time. A friend of his had sent him some of the videos. He, like others who saw the videos on Facebook, told police.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and all have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues Friday.
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