A fractured eye socket, broken nose and a battered and bruised face pitted with cigarette burns made her face almost unrecognizable.
The 18-year-old’s attackers also used cigarettes to burn her tongue and the inside of her ears, and her hair was set afire.
What happened to the Dartmouth girl who was almost beaten to death last week is being described by some in the justice system as one of the worst cases of torture ever in Nova Scotia.
The case is the talk of Halifax and Dartmouth court circles and has shaken many who are familiar with the crime. Even more troubling to some is that the alleged attackers are teenage girls themselves, one 18 and the other two, 14.
No one in the justice system would comment on the record because the case is still before the courts, but details are slowly emerging about a night of terror for the unidentified victim who sources say is lucky to have escaped with her life.
It’s alleged the girl was attacked late on Sept. 20 by several other females in a wooded area behind John Martin Junior High School on Brule Street in north-end Dartmouth.
Sources say the victim was beaten unconscious several times, and each time she came to, the beatings were renewed.
Despite her screams, sources say the victim was rolled down a hill behind the school and forced to walk up again without any shoes or socks on.
Only during a brief lull in the beatings was the girl able to slip away from her attackers and seek help at a nearby Albro Lake Road apartment building, sources said.
Halifax Regional Police will say only that the victim and the girls arrested in the crime all knew one another and they speculated the attack was the result of a previous dispute among them.
A bail hearing for Brittany McNeil, 18, of Primrose Street was to be held in Dartmouth provincial court Thursday but was adjourned to Oct. 11. She is being held in custody until then.
Ms. McNeil is charged with aggravated assault, assault with cigarettes and a lighter, possessing a weapon dangerous to the public and failing to comply with an undertaking.
Two 14-year-olds were also slated to have bail hearings in Halifax youth court Wednesday on similar charges. Neither can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
One of the girls is also charged with unlawful confinement and eight counts of breaching court orders. The other faces one charge of breaching a court order.
Their hearings were adjourned to Oct. 3 and they were remanded to a youth detention facility in Waterville.
By BRIAN HAYES Court Reporter (bhayes@herald.ca), The Chronical Herald, September 28, 2007.
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