John Leonard MacKean pleads not guilty to sex assault
MacKean, accused in chained teen case, faces two sex-related charges
A Lower Sackville man facing charges related to the alleged confinement and sexual assault of a teenage boy pleaded not guilty Monday.
John Leonard MacKean, 63, is scheduled for a three-day trial by judge and jury in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater.
He is charged with sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.
The Crown plans to call three witnesses during the trial including the alleged victim and two police officers.
On Monday, jury selection began.
MacKean opted for a jury trial last August.
He was released in November 2012 on a $1,000 surety and conditions, including no internet or mobile access — including texting — unless it's for work purposes. He was ordered not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18, unless he or she is a relative and another adult is present.
He was arrested in November 2012 at a hotel in Fredericton, N.B.
MacKean was charged after a 16-year-old boy told police he was kept at a house in Upper Chelsea, Lunenburg County, for eight days in September before he managed to escape. He said he walked more than a kilometre to a home, where he sought help.
The teenager had chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles and was wearing only a hooded sweatshirt and a hat when he was found.
That sparked a manhunt for two co-accused in the case, David James Leblanc and Wayne Alan Cunningham.
Cunningham was found dead in northern Ontario during that manhunt and police ruled out foul play in his death.
Leblanc pleaded guilty to kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats and breach of conditions and was sentenced in June to 11 years in prison.
An agreed statement of facts presented in Leblanc's case said Leblanc lured the teen to the cabin by offering him a painting job and drove him from Halifax to Lunenburg County. The walls of the cabin contained photographs of male genitals and sexual acts.
According to the documents, the boy was chained inside a bedroom at the cabin and repeatedly sexually assaulted.
With files from The Canadian Press