Lawyer Suggests Torture Story Made Up

Torture claims by a city man were concocted to deflect attention from the fact he had a murder victim in his trunk a defence lawyer charged yesterday.

Greg Dunn, whose client faces five charges including aggravated assault, suggested [The victim]'s story was designed to deflect police attention.

“It saves your butt from being a suspect in a homicide,” Dunn told [The Victim], during the alleged victim’s cross-examination.

“You made the torture up, it was a fabrication, right?” Dunn said.

Travis Erskine is on trial for a Feb. 18, 2004, attack on [The Victim] in which the city man says he was confined and tortured for hours.

[The Victim] said most of the assault, which also involved two other assailants, took place in the bathroom of a Victoria Park home.

Dunn suggested the only injuries [The Victim] suffered were at the hands of [The accused 2] (who has pleaded guilty and will testify for the Crown) and the now-dead [The accused 3].

Dunn and [The Victim] feared police would suspect him in the slaying of [Victim 2], whose body was found in the trunk of a witness’s car.

He suggested [The Victim] knew details of [Victim 2]’s death, such as the location of the motel room which she was slain and that she had been tied up.

But [The Victim] denied he had any knowledge of the city woman’s demise.

“I don’t even know if it was a murder.”

[The Victim] earlier said he and [The accused 2] arrived at a motel room to discover a group of people there with a body, which was subsequently put in his trunk.