Seacoast Online
It also included unreported testimony about fetish fairs in Portsmouth, attracted a so-called photo bomber and was attended by Mazzaglia’s self-described spiritual adviser.
Mazzaglia’s trial began Wednesday in Strafford Superior Court where his lawyers defended against charges alleging Mazzaglia strangled, then raped University of New Hampshire student Lizzi Marriott, on Oct. 9, 2012, after she said no to a threesome with his girlfriend Kathryn “Kat” McDonough.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the couple was involved with sadomasochist sexual activity, sometimes involving third parties. During his opening arguments on Tuesday, defense attorney Joachim Barth told jurors that Mazzaglia and McDonough enjoyed role playing through theater, gaming and “even in their sex lives.”
Together they’d gone to “BSDM conventions,” he said, including one “at the Frank Jones Center in Portsmouth.”
While Barth hasn’t mentioned the Portsmouth convention again, online archives document a “fetish fair” at the Frank Jones Center on June 29, 2013, and another one there a year earlier. “Produced by the New England Leather Alliance,” last year’s fetish fair featured more than 35 vendors with “fabulous toys, gear, erotica,” as well as “mini classes and demos,” it was advertised. The Portsmouth event was promoted as a chance to “mix and mingle with your fellow kinksters.”
The advertisement also urged people to “try out your fabulous rope purchases in the Rope Lounge.” Just three months after the 2012 fetish fair in Portsmouth, Mazzaglia is alleged to have strangled Marriott with a rope.
Prosecutor Peter Hinckley said during his opening arguments last week that Mazzaglia approached Marriott from behind, placed a rope around her neck, choked her until she was unconscious, then continued to hold the rope for “minutes afterward.”
“He struck quick and he struck without warning and without any mercy whatsoever,” the prosecutor said. “He didn’t let go until she could no longer say no to him.” Marriott, he said, let out a “quick cry” before she died, while McDonough did nothing to stop him.
According to an online listing by the New England Leather Alliance, a third annual fetish fair will be held at the Frank Jones Center on July 12. …