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Home / Whanganui Chronicle

'Utterly sickening' sex abuse denied

By Melissa Wishart
Whanganui Chronicle·
26 Aug, 2015 06:46 PM2 mins to read

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Whanganui District Courthouse PHOTO/FILE

Whanganui District Courthouse PHOTO/FILE

"Utterly sickening" was how Daniel Bell described allegations he had sexually abused young girls, a Wanganui court heard yesterday.

"I'm lost for words, I don't understand ... it makes me feel sick to my stomach, I don't know where they're getting this s*** from."

The words were read out to the High Court at Whanganui by a police officer who took Bell's statement.

He faces 32 charges of sexually abusing eight young girls, including 12 rape charges, three unlawful sexual connections, and 17 indecent assaults.

He has already pleaded guilty to one charge of indecency with a girl aged 12-16.

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Yesterday, Justice David Collins and the jury of five men and seven women heard two sisters give evidence.

The first complainant said in her evidential video interviews in 2010 that Bell "made us do that bad stuff what adults do".

"He did the bit where you put the private in the other private and then he made us touch lips," she said in the video, when she was 6.

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However, she did not mention any alleged offending against herself in an interview she did about six weeks earlier. Instead, the girl only spoke about seeing Bell sexually abusing one of her sisters.

Defence lawyer Fergus Steedman asked the now 12-year-old why she did not talk about the alleged rape in the first interview, but the complainant did not know why and said she did not remember even doing the interviews.

The complainant also said in her interview Bell had shown them a video of adults performing oral sex on each other. She went on to talk about Bell giving her and her sisters lollies and money so they would not "tell on him".

She thought she was about 4 when the alleged offences happened.

Discover more

Accused: I confessed to indecency due to gang pressure

31 Aug 06:50 PM

She also described another alleged rape but told Crown prosecutor Harry Mallalieu in court she did not remember the incident any more.

Mr Steedman pointed to a number of inconsistencies in her story. The complainant said at times she did not know why she had said what she did in the interview and could not remember.

The second complainant spoke in her interview last year about Bell touching her inappropriately.

In her video, the 9-year-old said he did it twice in the same night, but in court the now 11-year-old said it only happened once. The trial continues.

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