NEW HAMPSHIRE
Reuters
CONCORD, N.H. | BY TED SIEFER
A former student at an elite New Hampshire prep school, who is on trial for allegedly raping a younger student last year, told a friend he was in competition to “score” with the most girls before graduation, the friend testified on Monday.
Prosecutors have said Owen Labrie, now 19, took a 15-year-old girl to the roof of a campus building before sexually assaulting her in a machine room at St. Paul’s School.
Central to the trial has been an alleged, long-standing tradition among students at the nearly 160-year-old school known as “senior salute”: an invitation from graduating students to younger students to get together, often for sexual purposes. St. Paul’s has said any such allegations do not reflect the school culture.
The friend testified that he had encouraged the girl to accept Labrie’s invitation for a “senior salute” after Labrie said he was competing with another student to have sexual encounters with as many girls as possible before graduation.
“I said he’s a nice guy. I just kind of played it down, I guess. It’s just a senior salute,” said the student, who was not named. The judge in the case has ordered the identities of all minors who testify to be kept confidential.
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