Virk beaten for 15 minutes, witness says

Neal Hall
The Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA - Two teens dragged 14-year-old Reena Virk under a dark bridge in suburban Victoria on the night of Nov. 14, 1997, and stomped, kicked, and punched her for up to 15 minutes, a witness testified yesterday.

Chris Fox, 17, recalled his buddy Warren Glowatski, 18 -- who is on trial for the aggravated assault and second-degree murder of Ms. Virk -- told him on Nov. 19 that he and a co-accused girl caught up to Ms. Virk as she was walking across the bridge on the night she died.

Mr. Glowatski "said they took her under the bridge and started beating her up more," Mr. Fox told British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Malcolm Macaulay.

"He said they were kicking and punching her in the head and chest," Mr. Fox testified, adding the beating lasted 10 to 15 minutes.

He said Mr. Glowatski told him the co-accused girl jumped three times on Ms. Virk's head. The girl can only be identified as K.M.E. because she is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 29 and is seeking to be tried in youth court.

Mr. Fox also recalled Mr. Glowatski saying K.M.E. grabbed Ms. Virk's hair and pulled her head back, giving Ms. Virk a few "chops" in the neck.

Mr. Glowatski said he and K.M.E. grabbed Ms. Virk by the ankles and Ms. Virk's pants came off as they dragged her, Mr. Fox added.

"Did he say how it ended?" asked prosecutor Stan Lowe.

"I think he said K.M.E. pushed her into the water," replied the witness.

The trial has heard how Ms. Virk had been subjected to a previous beating on the night of Nov. 14 by eight teens, including seven girls.

The beating began after one girl accused Ms. Virk of stealing someone's boyfriend. The girl butted out a lit cigarette on Ms. Virk's forehead. As she turned to run, the girls blocked her escape and punched and kicked her for several minutes.

One witness testified Mr. Glowatski kicked Ms. Virk up to fives times in the head during the initial assault.

Bleeding from the face and her eyes almost swollen shut, Ms. Virk picked herself up and staggered across the bridge toward her nearby home in the Victoria suburb of Saanich.

The Crown contends Mr. Glowatski and K.M.E. followed Ms. Virk across the Craigflower Bridge and viciously attacked her again, then dragged her unconscious body into the ocean inlet under the bridge known as the Gorge, where she drowned.

The teens did not initially report the incident to the police, who only found Ms. Virk's body eight days after she disappeared.

Asked to provide further detail of what Mr. Glowatski told him, Mr. Fox said he was having trouble with his memory because "I've heard a lot of rumours and stuff."

One of the rumours the trial has already heard is that K.M.E. held Ms. Virk's head underwater with her foot for five minutes while she smoked a cigarette.

Mr. Fox, who now lives in the town of Duncan on Vancouver Island, testified he remains a friend of Mr. Glowatski. He said they had met at school and Mr. Glowatski came to live with Mr. Fox and his mother, Grace, about six months before the murder.

The trial has heard how Mr. Glowatski's father, Paul, 55, moved to San Diego about six months before the murder, leaving his son in the foster care of Grace Fox.

The father, who began attending the trial Friday, said outside court last week that he couldn't attend sooner because of his job.

Mr. Glowatski's mother lives in Alberta, the trial was told, and in testimony was described as an alcoholic. She hasn't attended the trial, now in its third week.

Six girls, aged 14 to 16, were convicted last year of assault causing bodily harm of Ms. Virk. They received sentences ranging from 60 days to one year in youth custody.