John Leonard MacKean's DNA found on chained boy, bed

A jury in the trial of a man charged with sexually assaulting a teenaged boy at a rural Nova Scotia cabin has heard the accused's DNA was found on both the chained boy and the bed to which he was chained. 

John Leonard MacKean, 64, is on trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Bridgewater, charged with sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.

He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer says MacKean will testify in his own defence on Thursday.

Last year, David James 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. Wayne Alan Cunningham, Leblanc's co-accused, was found dead in northern Ontario during a manhunt, and police ruled out foul play in his death.

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 Leblanc and Cunningham.

'I'm having trouble looking you in the eye'

On Wednesday, the court watched a four-hour video of MacKean's 2012 interrogation following his arrest in November of 2012 at a Fredericton hotel.

The video shows MacKean sitting in a chair, hands folded across his chest. He tells his interrogator he met Cunningham at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. MacKean knew Cunningham as “Patrick” while MacKean used the name “Glen.”  

During the interrogation, MacKean admitted going to the cabin in the woods where Cunningham and Leblanc had a teenaged boy chained up.

When an RCMP officer tells MacKean he knows he performed oral sex on the boy, MacKean didn’t answer. He said, “I feel sorry for that young man.”

The officer told MacKean police found his DNA on both the boy and the bed he was chained to.

Without admitting to assaulting the boy, MacKean said Cunningham told him the boy was 21 or 22 years old. The boy was 16 at the time of the assault. 

At one point during the interrogation, MacKean said to the officer, "I'm having trouble looking you in the eye," saying he feels like a total "f--k-up."

As the 2012 manhunt for Cunningham and Leblanc intensified, MacKean said he didn’t recognize the photos of Cunningham as the man he met on several occasions.

When the officer told MacKean that Leblanc and Cunningham planned to kill the boy, MacKean got visibly upset and said he wasn’t part of the plot.

The interrogating officer then told MacKean that Cunningham was a prostitute with “many clients.” MacKean said he never paid for sex but admitted to having several sexual encounters with Cunningham.

Leblanc and Cunningham's 'suicide pact'

During MacKean's interrogation video view in court Wednesday, more details emerged about Leblanc and Cunningham. 

In the video, the officer tells MacKean that Leblanc and Cunningham were together for 14 years and that Leblanc "picked up" Cunningham when he was just 17 years old.

In the video, it was also revealed that the pair had a "suicide pact." Cunningham died while on the run in Ontario. Leblanc did not.

Police also said Cunningham is buried in Ontario near the spot where he died while on the run from police in 2012. While on the run, Leblanc lost seven toes to frostbite, police said.

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 2012 before he managed to escape. He said he walked more than a kilometre to a home, where he sought help.