Napier court: Abuse trial told that father attacked girl's dog

The jury trial is being held in the Napier District Court. Photo / NZME

A teenage girl who alleges months of physical and sexual abuse from her father also said that he hit her dog, held a machete to its neck and threatened to kill the animal, a court has heard.

The girl said in a recorded police interview played to the Napier District Court that she had a panic attack while he was hitting the dog, and yelled at him to stop it.

"He told me he was going to kill him (the dog) then and there and he held the machete right up to his neck and said he was going to cut it, cut his head off," the girl said.

She said the dog was screeching and yelping, and "I couldn't do anything to help him".

The dog remained at the father's house when the girl moved out.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to 28 charges including raping a female aged 12 to 16, attempted rape, unlawful sexual connection, indecent assault, assaulting a person with a blunt instrument, assault on a female and attempted unlawful sexual connection.

The man also denied ill-treating a dog and supplying the girl with cannabis and magic mushrooms.

The man's lawyer, Leo Lafferty, has said that the defence case will be "simple and stark": that the events described did not happen.

On Tuesday, the second day of the trial, Lafferty began challenging through cross-examination the girl's recollection of things that had happened in her father's house, where people slept, how the furniture was arranged and dates other family members stayed there. She was giving evidence via a video link from another room.

In one exchange, the girl told Lafferty that for "the majority of the time" through part of 2019 she was under the influence of cannabis, alcohol and magic mushrooms supplied by her father.

"You're making it up, aren't you?" Lafferty said.

"No, I'm not making it up," the girl replied.

Later, Lafferty said: "There was never any sexual conduct by your father to you at any stage, in any part of the house."

The girl replied: "Yes, there was."

Earlier, two video interviews the police conducted with the complainant were shown to the court in which the girl described alleged physical and sexual abuse, starting when she was 13, after she moved from her mother's house in another town to get to know him better.

She said that the sexual abuse went on for quite a long time, starting off with just touching and becoming more and more physical as time went by.

In the interviews, the girl described sexual touching, oral sex and attempted intercourse, which she said was painful.

When asked who was the first person she told about this, she said her mother, when she went to visit her for a holiday.

"I just couldn't hold it in anymore because I don't know if I was imagining it, or dreaming all of it, but I knew it was wrong and I just couldn't hold it in any more."

When asked why she chose to do the interviews, she replied, "I hate getting these flashbacks of it and always feeling gross, like I'm going to throw up."

The trial before Judge Russell Collins and a jury of six men and six women continues.