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Transcripts of Interviews with
child witnesses
Tess
Hickory aged 6, 2nd interview recorded
28 May 1992
(Names as used
in the book "A City Possessed"
)
Q What happened then?
A Ah,
we played snap.
Q Right, okay, all right, now,
um, ah, now look, ah, what, what I need to know is, um, has anyone ever
touched your vagina in any other way before or not?
A Mmm,
no, yeah, my mum’s touched it with her hand.
Q Yeah. What did she touch it
with her hands for?
A To wash it.
Q Okay.
A Well, it’s Mum so it doesn’t
matter.
Q Yeah, right, and does she still wash it for you or not?
A No.
Q Do you wash your own?
A I do my own and I sometimes
wash her back and sometimes she washes my back.
Q Right, okay, and, um, so she
touches with her hands when she washes?
A Yeah.
Q Mmm.
Has anyone else ever touched your vagina with their hands before?
A Ah,
Dad.
Q Dad has?
A Yep. But no one else.
Q Right, okay. I guess, I guess
what I heard was that someone had, I heard that someone, you had told Mum
that someone had touched, touched you.
A Who? I can’t remember.
Q Touched your vagina and your
bottom.
A Who?
Q With their hands.
A Who?
Q And their fingers.
A I can’t remember.
Q Do you remember telling?
A Saying that?
Q Right.
A Mmm.
Q Do you remember now?
A No.
Q If anyone else has ever done
that. What was Dad touching it for?
A He was what, doing it when I were a baby washing.
Q Oh, right, looking after you
and stuff?
A Yeah.
Q Yeah.
A To put on my nappies.
Q Yeah, doing normal mother and
father stuff.
A Mmm.
Q Yeah. Okay, so, um, so I
guess what I’ve heard of the, someone else has touched you down there with
their fingers, with their hands and fingers.
A Who? Who? Myself? Was that a
joke or something?
Q No, no, no, it’s not a joke.
It’s just something that I wanted to check out with you to see if you could
help me, tell me about that stuff.
A I can’t remember saying, mmm, who was it?
Q What?
A Who was the person who
touched it?
Q Well I really need you to
tell me who it was because I.
A Is it what you’re going to
tell me?
Q No, it was, yeah, I guess
it’s what, it’s the, it’s the new stuff that I heard that you’d said to Mum
since we last talked.
A Yeah.
Q You told Mum that someone had
touched your fan, and, ah, bottom.
A Me?
Q Bottom and your vagina with.
A Did I?
Q Yeah, with the, with their
finger.
A Who
was it? Who did I say?
Q Well, it’s, it’s really
important for you to tell me who it was.
A Um.
Q But you’re not remembering?
A No, I can’t remember.
Q Mmm,
okay, all right, well, look, um, perhaps what I could also tell you that I’ve
heard was, um, that you know when you’ve drawn this picture of Mum about at
Peter’s house, Peter showed the puppy’s bottom.
A Mmm.
Q And you also said some other
things about Peter doing something with the puppy’s bottom.
A Peter?
Q Mmm.
You said to Mum that Peter showed the puppy’s bottom.
A Yeah.
Q And that you also said that
he did something else to the puppy’s bottom. Is that right?
A Um, he let me pick it up.
Q Right, yeah. What’s his puppy
like?
A Real cute.
Q Is it, what’s its name?
A Its
name’s, um, Cutie.
Q Cutie, is it?
A Yep.
Q Is that its
real name or has it got another name?
A Ah,
yeah, it’s his real name.
Q Cutie?
A Yeah.
Q Right.
A I like calling it, um,
Snuggles.
Q Do you?
A Because
my cat’s name’s Snuggles.
Q Oh is it? Right.
A And
she’s got a, she’s got a bite on her arm.
Q Oh.
A And
she limps.
Q Right.
A Like this she goes.
Q What made her limp? Oh
because of the bite on her arm.
A Yeah.
Q Mmm,
so, [T], what, what else did Peter do to the puppy’s bottom?
A He put his finger in it.
That’s what I forgot. He didn’t let me pick it up. He put his finger in it.
Q Mm mmm.
Did you pick up the puppy anyway?
A Yeah, he did, he did let me
as well.
Q So he put his finger in the
puppy’s bottom?
A Yep. Did I tell you that?
Q No.
A Oh,
okay, well he did.
Q He did?
A Yeah.
Q And who was there when he did
that?
A Um,
[female name, K] and [female name].
Q And what did he do after
that?
A Oh,
um, he.
Q What did he do after he put
his finger in the puppy’s bottom?
A He put it down.
Q The puppy.
A How come, how come he’s
crying?
Q I don’t know. It is a sad
face isn’t it … so, [T], and where was Peter’s mum when he was doing that?
A Oh,
he was, she was at work.
Q So was she there or not?
A No she was at work.
Q How many times have you been
to this place?
A Ah,
just once.
Q Okay. That was the time you
had a bath, is that right?
A Yep.
Q So he put his finger in the
puppy’s bottom. What did you think about that?
A I thought it was yucky and,
and I thought it was not nice.
Q Not nice. Yeah. What sort of
feeling did you get?
A Mmm,
don’t know.
Q Mmm.
What did he say when he was doing that?
A Nothing. He just did this.
Q Mmm
and so has Peter, um, so he’s put his finger in that puppy’s bottom, mmm?
A Mmm.
Q Has Peter put his finger in
any other bottoms before or not?
A No, I don’t, well I don’t
know. He hasn’t put it in my bottom.
Q He hasn’t put it in your
bottom.
A What’s
in, what’s that?
Q Okay, [T], that’s another
baby. Now show me where the, well, okay, we know where bottoms are. So he,
you say he hasn’t put it in your bottom. Is that right?
A Yep.
Q Okay, cos,
I, cos I guess what I’ve heard is that, um, that
you said that Peter did put it in your bottom.
A Did he?
Q Did you?
A Oh
yeah.
Q Aye?
A Did I?
Q Yeah?
A Oh,
yeah.
Q So, am I right?
A Yep.
Q Have I got the right
information? Did Peter put his finger in your bottom or not?
A Yes.
Q He did. Where when did that
happen?
A The
same day that I had the bath.
Q Mmm
and which part of the day?
A Afternoon.
Q Yeah. Where, whereabouts were
you when he did it?
A In his house.
Q Yeah. Where, whereabouts in
the house were you when?
A Um,
in the dining room.
Q Yeah and whereabouts were
your clothes when he did that?
A My
clothes?
Q Mmm,
when he put his finger in your bottom?
A Oh,
we were having a bath.
Q Oh, I see. Okay.
A Oh
can I go and look, see Mum.
Q Yeah, what, what do you, what
are you feeling like now when we’re talking about this?
A What
do you mean?
Q What do you feel like when
I’m asking you about this?
A I don’t feel like anything.
Q Mmm.
Well, look where, maybe if we, we could see Mum after we finished talking
about it, okay?
A Okay.
Q So you were in the bath when
he put his finger in your bottom. Was that, [T], was that before he washed
you or after?
A Before.
Q Right, okay.
A No, after.
Q After, after?
A Yeah.
Q Okay, so you didn’t tell me
that before.
A No.
Q Yeah and what, what stopped
you from telling me before?
A Cos
I couldn’t remember then.
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