Alleged Sexual Assault Shared on Snapchat Goes to Trial

• Story Update: Guilty Verdict in Saugus Snapchat Sexual Assault Case

Salem, MA — A potentially precedent-setting trial continues in the case of an alleged sexual assault shared on Snapchat in Saugus, Massachusetts.

The series of Snapchat videos reportedly show the victim, 16 at the time, standing naked in the woods and trying to say "stop," before showing what prosecutors claim to be a sexual assault on a girl who was stumbling and slurring due to drugs and alcohol.

The videos, which appear on the app and then vanish once viewed, were taken in September 2014. However, Wicked Local Saugus reports the district attorney's office has obtained videos provided by Snapchat.

An Essex County District Attorney spokeswoman told the paper the videos were obtained from Snapchat by the prosecution via preservation order.

Now the question is: Are they admissible as evidence?

Charges against the 21-year-old man and 20-year-old woman involved are in court this week. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with intent to rape, kidnapping, indecent assault and battery, and posing a child in the nude.

A lawyer for the defense told jurors the girl seen in the video "consented to the encounter with his client... and willingly consumed drugs and alcohol the night of the alleged attack," The Boston Globe reports.

Both defendants' lawyers challenged the alleged victim's accounts of the event. Her memory from that night is limited, her attorney said, putting added emphasis on video and stills from Snapchat.

The prosecution argues the girl could not consent to any advances because she was heavily intoxicated and “literally within hours of dying," the Globe reported.

The 19-year-old who allegedly shot and posted the Snapchat video pleaded guilty in March to posing a child in the nude, disseminating obscene material, and kidnapping.

>> Photo by Maurizio Pesce, via Flickr/Creative Commons