Elizabeth Smart testified today she was raped "on a daily basis up to three or four times" by Brian David Mitchell, the homeless preacher who allegedly kidnapped Smart when she was 14 and held her captive for nine months.
Share The 21-year-old is expected to describe the 9 months she spent in captivity.
Smart was never face to face in court with Mitchell, who was removed from the courtroom with his hands and feet shackled after he refused the judge's orders to stop singing a church hymn.
Smart, who is now 21, testified that on the first night she was taken from her home in 2002 she was guided on a three-mile hike to a canyon behind her home where Mitchell performed an impromptu wedding ceremony.
"He performed a ceremony to marry me to him and after that he proceeded to rape me," said Smart, clad in a white blouse and black pants.
Smart never became emotional during her two hours of testimony and remained poised, clenching her fists as she spoke.
Mitchell kept Smart from escaping by attaching chains around her ankles and tying them to nearby trees. He would wear the key to unlock the chains around his neck, said Smart.
When Mitchell's wife, Wanda Barzee, became jealous of his relationship with Smart, Mitchell organized a system where he would rotate between the two women, she testified.
"Wanda would get very upset with him," said Smart. "She'd say 'All you do is lust after her.'"
Smart said "There wasn't an actual 24-hour period he wasn't able to rape me."
There was at least one time when Smart was able to rebuff Mitchell. During a hike to get water from a stream, Smart said that Mitchell tried to convince her to have sex with him despite it being Wanda's turn.
"He said how much he needed me to have sex with him right then and there, and that Wanda would never know, she would understand and she would be OK, and it would be OK," said Smart, who testified that she had refused him sex.
Asked by U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman how it felt to say 'No' to Mitchell, Smart responded, 'Wonderful."
Full article and source: www.abcnews.go.com
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