A third girl alleged to have been touched by former substitute teacher Aleksandr Plehanov said in court Monday morning that "Mr. P" had touched her shoulder and rubbed her bum as he reviewed her math work.
The eight-year-old girl was in Grade 2 at the time and in the same split class as the first two girls who testified last week in Plehanov's trial at Port Coquitlam provincial court.
In a videotaped statement to police that was played in court, the girl said she and another student were standing on either side of Plehanov, who was sitting at the teacher's desk. He would tap her on the shoulder when she got a question wrong to "make us feel better," the girl said.
When she got a whole page of math questions correct, the girl said, Plehanov rubbed her bottom in a circular motion.
The officer asked how she felt about the touching and the girl said she "didn't really care."
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Lisa Jean Helps, the girl agreed she had trouble remembering the events of March 10, 2010 and how the day had progressed.
The girl testified she learned her classmate had also been touched by Plehanov when that girl's younger sister revealed the police had been to their house two nights earlier.
"And that's when you realized you were part of the secret, too?" Helps asked.
"Yes," the girl agreed.
Under re-examination by a Crown prosecutor, the girl clarified what she meant by saying, "I knew I had been touched and now that [the younger sister] told me that [my classmate] had been touched, too, I knew I was part of it and I needed to tell my parents."
Helps also questioned the girl on who she told about the touching, emphasizing she had spoken to the other alleged victims from the same class at least once about the touching.
The next witness to take the stand was the mother of an alleged victim from Bramblewood elementary school in Coquitlam.
The girl was seven years old at the time and in Grade 2 when Plehanov was a substitute teacher in her class on Oct. 13, 2009.
The mom picked up her daughter from the school's on-site daycare and said the girl was very excited to tell her about the day. She'd had a "really fun" substitute teacher, the woman testified, who had given the students candy and a spinning top to play with.
"She said she got to be the teacher's 'special helper' for the day," the woman said. "She mentioned it was so much fun and she even got to sit on him."
Once they were in the car, the mother asked her how that had come about and her daughter said she had gone to the teacher's desk, sat on his lap and he had rubbed her tummy.
"I asked her to describe how because I was surprised it had happened," the woman testified. She pulled down the rear-view mirror and saw her daughter lift up her top and rub her stomach, with her fingers going under the waistline of her pants.
The woman said her daughter thought that part was "weird" but insisted that the day had been fun.
The following day, the woman spoke to the school's principal, Brenda Walker, who asked her to write a statement, which the woman emailed to her that day.
On Friday, Oct. 16, the girl and her parents visited to the school to demonstrate the alleged incident to Walker. The woman testified that she asked Walker what would happen next and was told that the school board would handle it.
In March 2010, the woman discovered Plehanov was the subject of a police investigation because of an alleged incident at Glen elementary, saying it was the mother of another student in her daughter's class who had told her. She and her husband contacted police and gave a formal statement on March 25, 2010.
The woman's daughter was expected to testify later this afternoon.
The trial continues.
