"Who sees it is up to you," Wing Lee tells the judge. "That's your decision. But you must hear to get the full story."
NNSL (Jul 10/98) - Though videotapes were admitted as evidence in the Wing Lee trial, the presiding judge ruled yesterday the courtroom will be closed to the public while the tapes are being played.
"The Crown anticipates videos will show explicit scenes of sex acts between complainants and the accused," Crown lawyer Mark Scrivens said, arguing showing the videos to the public would constitute an unjust infringement on the complainants's privacy rights.
"In some cases, the complainants did not know the acts were being videotaped," said Scrivens.
Late yesterday, CBC informed the court it is fighting the ban. NWT Supreme Court Justice John Vertes was to begin hearing arguments from the public broadcaster's lawyer starting this morning at 9:30.
Seven of the 1,305 videotapes seized from a Gold Range Hotel room Lee rented are being used as evidence. Total duration of the tapes to be shown is three and a half hours.
Scrivens said one of the girls in the videos was under 18 and another less than 14.
Before ruling the public would be excluded from the courtroom during the playing of the tapes, Justice Vertes asked Lee and his lawyer if they had any objections to the ban being requested.
It was unclear whether Lee objected to the public being excluded.
"Who sees it is up to you," said Lee, addressing the judge. "That's your decision. But you must hear to get the full story."
Lee's legal adviser said his client wanted to make sure the tapes were the originals seized by police. Andrew Mahar said Lee was also concerned only portions of the videos would be shown.
"My understanding is Mr. Lee is concerned the videos will be taken out of context if not seen in their entirety," said Mahar.
Lee said it was important to hear what was said leading up to the acts depicted on the video.
"You can not skip the talking. Where there is talking with the dresses on, you can not skip that," said Lee.
Vertes granted the Crown's request to exclude the public during the playing of the tapes, which began at 10:50 a.m. Thursday.
The judge also told Lee, who is technically representing himself, that he will be able to cross-examine all police witnesses, but any questions he had of other witnesses would have to be asked by Mahar.
