Teen found dead in Burnaby park had semen inside her body, murder trial hears

WARNING: This story contains graphic details that may disturb readers. Discretion is advised.

Sperm was discovered on the genitals of a young B.C. teen found dead in Burnaby’s Central Park nearly six years ago, jurors at a murder trial in Vancouver heard Wednesday.

Ibrahim Ali has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the July, 2017 killing. The victim’s identity is protected by a publication ban.

1:38 Murder trial of Ibrahim Ali resumes

DNA evidence is set to play a critical role in the Crown’s case against Ali, as there were no eyewitnesses to the girl’s death.

Prosecutors have said they will prove Ali fatally strangled the girl in the course of sexually assaulting her.

The jury has already heard that police found the victim partially unclothed in a wooded area of the park, her personal possessions strewn around her body.

On Wednesday Jeremy Fenn, an RCMP forensic expert on identification of sperm, told the court he had examined samples of swabs taken from the girl’s private parts.

He testified that the examination determined sperm was present. An unknown sticky substance found in a clump of the victim’s hair and on her neck, however, was not sperm.

Exactly what the substance was remains unknown, as it never underwent further testing, the court heard.

A mouth swab also returned a negative test for sperm, while the teen’s breast area, fingernails, clothing and personal possessions were not examined for it, he said.

2:12 Trial of Ibrahim Ali hears cross-examination of forensic pathologist

No one had requested tests on those items, he testified, drawing a line of focused questioning from Ali’s lawyer Kevin McCullough.

“Did you think to yourself … there must have been this chaotic scene of sex, and then the person who had the sex with them must have killed them, therefore I’m going to analyze all these things?” McCullough asked.

“No, I was not,” he responded.

“I’m going to suggest to you, if you were thinking that, you’d have thought, well that semen would be all over these swabs and those fingernails, fair?” McCullough responded.

That question drew an interjection from Justice Lance Bernard, who told the witness he did not have to answer.

“He said he wasn’t thinking that,” Bernard said.

1:44 Global News obtains pictures of evidence submitted to court in Ibrahim Ali trial

The jury has already heard from the pathologist who conducted the victim’s autopsy, who testified she had died by strangulation and that she was found with several injuries including bruising, scraping and tearing on the back of her head, as well as to her face, arms and legs.

The DNA evidence portion of the the trial was paused Wednesday due to a scheduling conflict, and is due to resume on July 24. Two new witnesses are expected to take the stand on Thursday.

-With files from Rumina Daya