"I have to acknowledge they are vile offences, but he says, nevertheless, 'I didn't do this'," he said.
Despite having a lengthy criminal history, Bell has never gone through a complete trial before. In 2009, he went to trial for hitting a child in the face, resulting in a bleeding nose, but decided to plead guilty when the victim's young sister was giving evidence.
It "broke" his heart to see the child giving evidence, he said when he took the witness stand yesterday following two weeks of Crown evidence, including eight complainants.
He earlier pleaded guilty to one count of indecency with a girl aged 12-16.
When asked why he had pleaded guilty to the indecent assault on the 9-year-old girl, Bell said "gang pressures" and "family influences" meant pleading guilty was the "easy way out" for him.
He said the victim's family had gang affiliations.
Bell claimed that he had never, in fact, touched the child.
He also denied all allegations of sexual offending mentioned in the past two weeks, and at times had no recollection at all of situations in which the alleged offending was said to have taken place.
He told Mr Mallalieu his indecent offending against the girl aged 12-16 happened after he was set up on a date with her and had been told that she was 16, turning 17.
There has been debate in court over whether she was actually aged 12 or 14 when the indecency began.
Bell, who was jailed in 1999 for entering a Wanganui dairy with a sawn-off shotgun, committed the crime the day after allegations were made that he kissed a 4-year-old. girl.
Bell told Mr Mallalieu during cross-examination there were a "number" of things upsetting him at the time of the attack and the dairy owner had been his scapegoat. Mr Mallalieu said it was "just a sheer coincidence" Bell had decided to attack the victim the day after being accused of indecent assault, and asked whether it was a "convenient way" for Bell to "deflect" attention from the sexual allegations. Bell disagreed.
The trial continues.
