Teen in New Hampshire prep school rape trial: I felt frozen

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A teenage girl who accused a senior at an elite New Hampshire prep school of raping her told jurors today she felt "frozen" when he became aggressive.

The accuser testified that Owen Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vt., bit her breast and tried to pull her underwear off in a building at St. Paul's School two days before his graduation in 2014. On the witness stand, the girl said she was in pain when he bit her and during intercourse but said nothing to Labrie, who was 18 at the time. She was a 15-year-old freshman.

"I'm thinking how naive of myself, and I never should have left my room that night," she testified. "I felt like I was out of my body. ... I didn't want to believe this was happening to me."

Prosecutors have said the rape occurred as part of a tradition at St. Paul's called "Senior Salute" in which seniors try to have sex with or romance underclassmen.

Labrie, now 19, has pleaded not guilty to several felony charges and maintains the two had consensual sexual contact – a misdemeanor considering their ages – but did not have intercourse, which would be a felony.

Defense attorney J.W. Carney told jurors Tuesday that emails between the two suggest the girl was a willing participant.

Carney, who minimized the Senior Salute element, read to jurors from a string of emails between the two before and immediately after they got together the night of May 30, 2014. In them, the freshman agreed to meet Labrie, saying "only if it's our little secret."