WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has.

A nine-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a priest last year in Little Grand Rapids First Nation said in court Tuesday she remembers feeling scared when the priest allegedly led her into his bedroom from inside the church that day.

The girl, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, said Arul Savari then took off her clothes. She said Savari, whom she called “Father Arul”, also told her he loved her and later kissed her while she was still at church.

Savari, who sat behind a screen blocking the girl’s view as he testified, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault, sexual interference and forcible restraint on the first day of his trial before Court of King’s Bench Judge Shawn Greenberg.

The court heard both direct evidence from the girl, who clutched a stuffed animal as she spoke from the witness box, and a video recording of the statement she gave after the alleged assault in 2023.

“When I was at church, I think that priest—you know that priest who works at the church?” she said to the person who took her statement in the video played in court.

“Father Arul. He did something terrible to me.”

The girl said that when she left the church that day, Savari told her not to tell her mother what happened. But she did it anyway, which led to police being contacted about the incident in her home community, a remote First Nation about 265 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg.

Savari’s lawyers are expected to question the girl Tuesday afternoon.

For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is help available through crisis lines and local support services through Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety or the safety of others, please call 911.