Closing arguments are underway in the case of a 4-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a neighbour.

On Boxing Day 2011, police received a frantic 911 call from a father reporting that his 4-year-old daughter had gone missing from their home in North York.

Police say the man stepped outside to find his daughter lying naked in a neighbour’s front yard with a stranger standing over her.

According to Crown prosecutor Sheila Cressman, the father let out “the most bloodcurdling screams I’ve ever heard on a 911 call” and quickly rushed to his daughter’s side as the assailant fled the scene.

The identity of the girl, who was visiting her grandparents with her family from Connecticut, is under a publication ban.

During the course of the investigation, police asked for DNA samples from Ryan Belbin, a neighbour who lived in a basement apartment two doors down from where the incident occurred.

Belbin, 28, was later charged with break-and-enter, abduction and sexual assault.

During closing arguments in a downtown court Thursday afternoon, the Crown pointed to DNA samples from Belbin that matched DNA found on the little girl’s pyjama top.

“DNA was transferred on her top by Belbin removing it as he undressed her,” Crown lawyer Sheila Cressman told the judge.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Penman argued that the DNA could have come from anywhere, pointing to the fact that Belbin had lived in the area for quite some time,

“The idea his DNA could be in the neighbourhood is a very real possibility. He has lived in the neighbourhood for four years,” she argued.

Cressman countered the Defence’s claim, stating that it is implausible that the accused accidentally transferred his DNA in the exact same area where the child’s clothing was found.

“Extraordinary to think a stranger would enter the back yard just to spit or urinate on the spot where the pyjamas were found,” she noted.

The Defence told the judge that the onus is on the Crown to prove guilt and that the accused does not need to explain how his DNA got anywhere.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney