The oldest of two women alleging their stepfather sexually assaulted them when they were young girls denied Wednesday a defence lawyer's suggestion that she was 18 years old before any sexual activity between the two occurred.
Now 23 years old, she also denied lawyer Tony Zipp's assertion that the encounters occurred on a near daily basis was an exaggeration, noting the man did work shifts that would have taken him out of the house at night and that she attended school during the days for most of those years.
"I don't recall coming across a day that he didn't touch me," said the woman, whose name cannot be printed under a court-ordered publication ban against identifying the alleged victims.
Zipp did uncover some inconsistencies between her statements to the police and what she told the court. While she told the police the activity began with fondling and oral sex at age 12, she told the court it began when she was 10 or 11 years old.
She said the discrepancy is because she was using the homes they had lived in over the years as a guide for when the encounters occurred and got her dates mixed up.
She also conceded that while she told the court she never told anyone about the incidents because the stepfather, who also cannot be named, said he would kill himself if she did, she told police it was because he warned that doing so would ruin her life.
She blamed the discrepancies on the short time between the family reporting the allegations to and giving the statements to police. One was given on the same day the complaint was made, shortly after the younger woman told her story to their mother, and another was given about two weeks later.
"I wasn't prepared to tell my story," she told the court. "Honestly, everything just happened so fast. I went to police to talk to them, I was just trying to get out as much that I remembered."
When she realized her errors, she did not go back to police but instead discussed the details with Crown prosecutor, Cassandra Malfair, the court was told.
Confronted with an assertion that the stepfather never claimed to be a pastor but did missionary work, she maintained he did "use the pastor word" with her.
"He said that he was our pastor and that he had the education...that he knew enough about the Bible and about God that he was a pastor," she said and added he also said he preached at his own home-based church.
Zipp also recounted various medical trouble the stepfather had, from sleep apnea to a swollen testicle to surgery on his hand to needing a cane following an ankle injury and suggested he would be too disabled to commit the act she claimed.
In response, she said he would tell her he would "put aside his pain for me."
She also denied a suggestion she was the one who recorded two videos of sex acts rather than the stepfather.
The man is facing 14 counts in B.C. Supreme Court, 10 of which deal with sexual assault and sexual interference against the two stepdaughters. Two other charges relate to making or publishing child pornography and possession of child pornography. The final two counts relate to bestiality.
The trial, which began Sept. 4 and is expected to take four weeks, continues today.
