Mar 23, 2012 ? 3:52 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 23, 2012 3:55 PM ET
By Linda Nguyen
Warning: story contains graphic content
LONDON, Ont. ? The idea to kidnap and kill eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford was planned by a rage-filled, violent woman who took the girl as collateral for a drug debt, the defence in Michael Rafferty?s murder trial told court on Friday.
It was Terri-Lynne McClintic who lured the little girl, then went into a Home Depot to purchase garbage bags and a hammer and ultimately used the weapon to smash in the Grade 3 student?s skull, alleges lawyer Dirk Derstine.
?I?m going to suggest that the abduction in this case was your idea, that you went and lured her in the car . . and Michael thought nothing of it,? he said on McClintic?s last day of cross-examination.
She even offered the girl sexually to Rafferty, and when he refused ?your gift,? she told him to walk away from the car. When he returned, she had killed Tori all on her own, accused Derstine.
?I will suggest that Rafferty came back after the death and was horrified but helped you clean up.?
On the witness stand McClintic refuted the theory that Rafferty was not the ?driving force? behind the murder.
?I very much disagree with you,? she responds firmly.
Handout photo: Stafford family
Tori Stafford?s remains were found in July 2009 in a rural field in Mount Forest, Ont., more than 200 kilometres away from where she was last seen
McClintic told the court she could not make herself believe all these horrible things were going to happen to the little girl. Last week, she testified Rafferty had repeatedly raped Stafford while she stood motionless a distance away.
?In my mind, I believed that I was not going to let anything bad happen. I thought that I would protect her,? she said teafully. ?Just that I wouldn?t let anything happen.?
McClintic, 21, is serving a life sentence after she pleaded guilty two years ago to first-degree murder in Stafford?s death.
Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
Stafford was last seen on April 8, 2009, outside her elementary school in Woodstock, Ont., a small city west of Toronto. Her remains were found three months later in a rural field near Mount Forest, Ont., about two hours away from where she was last seen.
McClintic, who is Rafferty?s ex-lover and the Crown?s star witness, has been testifying at the high-profile trial for the past two weeks.
Wearing a grey sweater and a black-and-white top and sporting glasses, McClintic admitted on the stand that she recently told her godmother, during a prison visit, that she felt little remorse for killing the young girl.
?(You said) that you were only sad about the killing, that it was a little kid ? otherwise you could it again?? pressed Derstine.
After a lengthy pause, McClintic replied: ?Yes? softly.
Handout photo: Facebook
Michael Rafferty has been in custody since he was arrested in 2009.
She also admitted that as a child, she had microwaved a small dog until it screamed.
?Nobody believed that you had done that. You cooked up a story that the dog had been hurt by neighbourhood dogs and it had to be put down. Right? That was the story everyone seemed to believe, Ms. McClintic??
After another long pause, she replied: ?I was a child.?
?Because nobody believed you could be so cruel to such an innocent?? pressed Derstine. ?I was a child. I didn?t know what I was doing,? she responds, crying.
For the past three days, the defence has been trying to paint a picture of McClintic as an angry young woman who had been in and out of jail for her whole life and often resorted to random acts of violence.
Her criminal record consisted mostly of assault charges, including two incidents, which resulted in her mother suffering a fractured cheek and partial loss of sight in one eye
McClintic maintains she had changed long before Tori?s murder.
On Friday, the 12-person jury saw excerpts of a journal she started days after she was arrested for the death of the little girl. The pages were filled with gang signs and angry entries about beating up people.
She admitted on the stand she got into a fight in late January where she kicked and stomped a woman while she was on the ground in a fetal position.
Court also heard a number of songs Friday by one of McClintic?s favourite rap artists, Necro.
One of them, titled Dead Body Disposal described killing someone, double bagging their bodies and dividing it into different trash cans ? details that were similar to what she said she and Rafferty did with Tori?s body.
The jury also heard from Ontario Provincial Police Det. Colin Darmon Friday who testified about the investigators? first interview with Rafferty in mid-May.
In an audio recording of the meeting at Rafferty?s house in Woodstock, he admitted he knew McClintic and another woman whose daughter had been best friends with Tori.
Other than, he didn?t know many people in the town.
?The people in here are pretty scary,? Rafferty told Darmon.
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