A homicide informant said a former Philly detective assaulted him in a Police Headquarters elevator

As he spoke to an inmate on a recorded phone call, then-homicide detective Philip Nordo’s voice began to rise.

The inmate had told Nordo that his daughter had been sexually abused. And Nordo had clear thoughts about what should happen to the offender.

“You go to trial on a rape and get found guilty? You better kiss your ass goodbye,” Nordo said, peppering his outburst with profanity. “Take this [man] to trial and bury him under the ... jail.”

The call, recorded in 2016, was played for jurors Thursday on the fourth day of testimony at Nordo’s trial — a case in which the ex-detective himself has now been accused of rape.

Prosecutors have charged him with assaulting three men in the course of his investigations. Nordo has denied the allegations.

On Thursday, the man Nordo spoke to during that call spent most of the day on the witness stand. He told jurors about his relationship with Nordo, who he’d met as a homicide informant, and said Nordo tried to assault him in an elevator at Police Headquarters in 2016. (The Inquirer does not name people without their permission who say they were sexually assaulted.)

In that episode, the man said, Nordo kissed him and grabbed his groin as he was handcuffed. The man had been brought from jail to provide information about a murder, one of several the man said he would go on to discuss with the detective.

The man said Nordo had behaved unusually from the first time they met, when Nordo visited him in jail. During that encounter, the man said, Nordo asked if he was a “freak” and grabbed his own crotch while talking.

Still, Nordo’s attorneys were quick to point out that even after that meeting, the man went on to call Nordo dozens of times while behind bars.

Several of the calls were played for the jurors, with Nordo and the man heard talking about the man’s situation in jail, his family troubles — including the assault of the man’s daughter — and his cooperation in investigations.

The man often placed his hands over his ears as the calls were played, saying they were difficult to listen to and a reminder of a prior chapter of his life.

“It’s like reliving a nightmare,” he said.

Richard J. Fuschino Jr., one of Nordo’s lawyers, often reminded the man that he was the one making those calls, initiating the conversations, and staying in touch with Nordo while he was imprisoned.

Fuschino also questioned the man about inconsistencies in his account. On the witness stand, for example, the man said Nordo touched him in the elevator and also once in an office. But his grand jury testimony included just one account of an attempted assault in the elevator.

“This is something I put behind me,” the man said, clearly frustrated. “It’s embarrassing. It’s belittling ... . I don’t even want to be here.”

The man was the last of three accusers to take the stand this week. Another man, testifying Tuesday, said Nordo forced him to have oral and anal sex in a hotel room several years ago, and a former prison guard said Nordo tried to force oral sex on him in a car.

Nordo’s lawyers have challenged the credibility of those witnesses, using previous statements, phone records, and criminal histories in attempts to undermine their testimony.

The case was expected to continue Friday.