Defense seeks to undermine accuser's credibility in New Hampshire youth center sex abuse case

Victor Malavet stands as lawyers conduct a bench meeting with the judge during his trial at Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, N.H., on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. Malavet, a former state employee is charged in connection with the attorney general's probe of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. (David Lane/Union Leader via AP, Pool)

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) 鈥 A former resident of a youth holding facility in New Hampshire described a staffer Tuesday as a 鈥淒r. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde鈥 who raped her in a storage closet just before handing out candy to other children as a reward for good behavior.

Victor Malavet, 62, faces 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against Natasha Maunsell, who was 15 and 16 when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord in 2001.

She testified against him on the second day of his trial, describing the excitement she felt when he picked her to help retrieve candy for other residents and the fear, shame and confusion that followed as he kissed her, forced her to perform a sex act on him and raped her.

鈥淎fter he was done he just hurried and got the candy,鈥 transitioning back into the man who had discussed Bible verses with and treated her kindly, she said.

鈥淟ike Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,鈥 she said, referring to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel featuring a scientist and his evil alter ego. 鈥淚t felt like a totally different personality.鈥

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they have come forward publicly, as Maunsell has done.

It is the first criminal trial arising from a five-year investigation into allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, though unlike the other eight , Malavet worked at a different state-run facility where children were held while awaiting court disposition of their cases.

In Monday, Malavet鈥檚 attorney Maya Dominguez said Maunsell made up the allegations in an attempt to get money from the state. Maunsell is among more than 1,100 former residents who are alleging abuse that spanned six decades.

鈥淵ou鈥檇 agree there is money to gain in a civil suit?鈥 Dominguez asked Maunsell on Tuesday.

鈥淭here is monetary compensation for damages,鈥 Maunsell agreed.

Dominguez, who will continue her cross-examination Wednesday, sought to chip away at the prosecution鈥檚 argument that Maunsell was under Malavet鈥檚 control and isolated from her family and the outside world.

Dominguez was granted permission by the judge to bring up the fact that Maunsell was transferred to the facility from Manchester after she assaulted two staffers there with a lead pipe, a crime for which she served 10 years in prison.

In her testimony, Maunsell acknowledged lying to authorities who investigated Malavet in 2002, saying she was too scared to say anything other than that he was a friend and mentor. She also described feeling particularly fearful during one of the alleged assaults.

鈥淚 remember having this gut wrenching feeling that this is never going to end. This is never going to stop, and it鈥檚 going to continue the same way every time,鈥 she testified. 鈥淚 just remember that particular time feeling especially scared, and trapped.鈥

In a civil case in May, a for abuse he says he suffered at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s, though the verdict .

Together, the two trials highlight the unusual dynamic of having the state attorney general鈥檚 office simultaneously and defend the state. While prosecutors likely will be relying on the testimony of the former youth center residents in the criminal trials, attorneys defending the state against Meehan鈥檚 claims spent much of that trial portraying him as a , troublemaking teenager and .

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