A 14-year-old girl hit back at a defence barrister's allegations yesterday, asking him: 'How do you think I felt when I was sexually abused?' Mr Justice Thomas Gall later told the teenager: 'Can you answer counsel's question rather than arguing with him? His duty is to test your recollection and your honesty. That is what he is doing.' The High Court judge's warning came after the girl, who accuses her father of incest, told lawyer Robert Buchanan he was trying to gather evidence to prove she was telling lies.
Mr Buchanan produced a document which he said proved a bed she claimed to have been abused on in July 1994 had not been purchased until September that year.
'Let me tell you, I have not told any lies,' she said.
Mr Buchanan had earlier accused the teenager of inventing a story about her father torturing her.
The girl wept as she said: 'It was I who was beaten up by him. That is why I can remember it so clearly.' The girl asked the barrister: 'Don't you understand how I felt when I was sexually assaulted by him, when I tried to say no? I never imagined that I would be alive now. Every day I wanted to kill myself.' Her 48-year-old father denies six charges of incest between July and December 1994. The girl alleges he had sex with her between 28 and 34 times.
When Mr Buchanan accused the teenager of stealing from her mother, she said: 'At least I dare to admit what I have done. I have not told lies. Look at him. He has done it, but he dares not admit it and he says I have made false allegations against him.' The trial continues today.
