Accused sex predator Richard Neil disputes DNA link to Ontario crime scenes
'It's not me,' Neil tells court as trial for string of 1990s assaults continues
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WARNING: This story contains details of sexual assaults against children
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story → contain → children
A Toronto man accused of grisly attacks on children in public parks in southern Ontario in the 1990s repeatedly this week disputed evidence against him and insisted police arrested the wrong man.
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police → accuse → man
"It's not my DNA," Richard Neil testified at his trial in Brampton.
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Neil → testify → Brampton
Crown prosecutors say DNA evidence links Neil to crime scenes in Kitchener, Brampton and Oakville, three decades after the "woodland attacker" case baffled investigators.
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case → say → investigators
Two boys, aged eight and 10, and a 15-year-old girl each told police they'd been lured into wooded areas, tied up and raped by a stranger.
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they → age → stranger
The victims all said they'd been forced to drink the assailant's urine during the attacks, which occurred between 1992 and 1995.
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which → say → 1992
The jury heard Neil wasn't arrested until March 2024, after forensic genetic genealogy pointed to him as a suspect.
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genealogy → hear → suspect
Prosecutors said further laboratory analysis found it's "20 quadrillion times more likely" that the DNA at the crime scenes belonged to Neil, rather than another, random person.
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DNA → say → person
"I'm not a scientist," he said from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice witness box on Tuesday, according to an audio recording reviewed by CBC News.
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he → say → News
"All I can say is it was not me.
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it → say → ?
I had nothing to do with it."
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I → have → it
Neil, 67, has pleaded not guilty to the 17 charges including kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and administering a stupefying drug.
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Assistant Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie said it was an "impossible coincidence" that multiple pieces of evidence — including fingerprints — also connect Neil to the three attacks.
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pieces → say → attacks
The jury was previously told Neil's fingerprints were lifted from two shopping bags and a two-litre pop bottle located at Wildwood Park in Oakville, where the girl was assaulted in August 1995.
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girl → tell → August
During her cross-examination, MacKenzie also zeroed in on the accused's "interest in urine."
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MacKenzie → zero → urine
Neil acknowledged that he developed a urine-drinking "fetish" around 2012, insisting "it's actually quite common."
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it → acknowledge → 2012
"Anytime I've engaged in that act," he said, "it's been with consenting male adults only."
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it → engage → adults
The court heard the British-born Neil immigrated to Canada with his family as a child.
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Neil → hear → child
He grew up in Kitchener, where the first boy was assaulted in the city's Idlewood Park, in August 1992.
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boy → grow → August
At the time, the jury was told Neil had a home in neighbouring Waterloo.
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Neil → tell → Waterloo
He spent much of his career working as a Toronto-area driver for employers such as Canada Post, UPS and Bell.
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MacKenzie, the prosecutor, said Neil happened to be unemployed when the first two attacks — in Kitchener in 1992 and in Brampton's Norton Place Park in September 1994 — occurred.
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attacks → say → September
She said at the time of the 1995 Oakville attack, Neil's job involved delivering phone books and that he had a "very loose schedule."
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The jury was shown this image of a two-litre pop bottle recovered from the scene of a brutal attack in Oakville, Ont., in 1995.
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jury → show → 1995
The 15-year-old victim told police the unknown assailant forced her to drink urine from the bottle.
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assailant → tell → bottle
When he was arrested in 2024, Neil was splitting his time between his Toronto condo and a house in Victoria.
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The court previously heard officers searched both addresses after he was detained.
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Neil testified that he was awoken from a nap when police showed up at his door in Toronto to arrest him and seize his electronic devices.
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police → testify → devices
Previously detained, not fingerprinted
Once DNA evidence had linked all three assaults in the 1990s, forensic scientists looked at roughly 310 persons of interest over the years, a witness previously testified.
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witness → detain → years
It appears likely they would not have had Neil's DNA or fingerprints in their database, or his name on their list of suspects, at the time.
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they → appear → time
Other than traffic violations, the court heard Neil had only one previous run-in with police.
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Neil → hear → police
He testified that he was 19 years old when he and another man had been detained for "two, three hours, tops" for a drinking offence in Toronto.
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he → testify → Toronto
They weren't charged and officers didn't take their fingerprints, Neil said.
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Boy recounts 1994 park attack on tape played at trial
Jury hears forensic expert in cold case sex assault trial
Crown says DNA evidence helped ID man now on trial for decades-old sex assaults against children
The jury also previously heard contemporaneous police interviews of the three victims, who were not required to testify at trial.
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who → recount → trial
The Crown and defence both agreed the attacks took place as the children described at the time.
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children → agree → time
"There's no quarrel as to what occurred, or that these crimes took place," Neil's defence lawyer, Leo Adler told the jury.
"
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lawyer → be → jury
The issue has been from the start, who is the individual responsible."
Neil, a divorced father of three, is set to resume his testimony on Friday.
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In September 1994, a 10-year-old boy told police he was walking through Brampton's Norton Place Park, when he was approached by a stranger and lured to a nearby wooded area where he was sexually assaulted.
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he → tell → area
The Aporia
