Girl’s account of abuse by aunt screened on tape in court

Among the weapons an orphaned Calgary girl said her aunt used to abuse her was a barbecue fork, which she was poked with until she bled, court heard Tuesday.

The girl, who can’t be named, made the allegations in a videotaped police statement given nearly three months after she and her two younger siblings were seized by child welfare.

In the video, played in the Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench trial of the girl’s aunt and uncle, she told Sgt. Jason McDonald she was also abused with a wooden spoon and large stick.

The aunt and uncle, who can’t be named, adopted the girl and her younger brother and sister in 2009.

The children were orphaned in a fiery crash in 2006 while they were living in New Jersey.

The three siblings were rescued from the family’s burning van, but their parents died.

Crown lawyer William Tran wants Justice Sandy Park to rule the taped statement can be permitted into evidence, instead of having the now 19-year-old recount events from six and seven years ago.

Defence lawyers Kelsey Sitar and Karen Molle are opposing the motion.

“Our position is that (she) has fabricated the allegations, the very serious allegations, that she never brought up before,” Molle told Park.