Jurors hear girl’s testimony in child sex abuse trial of Dean Adlem from Hungerford

A MAN is pitting his word against a child who said he abused her.

On the opening day of the trial of Dean Adlem yesterday, Wednesday, July 23, the young girl told jurors how the 44-year-old had come into the bedroom and began molesting her as she lay in only her nightie.

She said Mr Adlem, of Priory Road, Hungerford, had begun by putting his arm over her stomach.

The child added: “He started pinching my bottom; like, stroke pinching - touching my skin.

“I pulled my nightie down over my bottom (but) then he put his hand on my belly again.

“Then he touched my vagina, underneath my nightie.

“He stroked my vagina - twice.”

The girl said she had asked him to stop and gone downstairs to sleep.

Next day, she confided in her parents, the court heard.

The girl said: “My dad gave me a hug for ages.”

Asked by a detective whether anything like that had ever happened to her before, the girl, replied: “No.”

Asked how she felt, she replied; “I feel alright now I’ve said it to you guys.”

However, jurors heard that crucial evidence given by the girl had been altered by the detective.

Janick Fielding, for Adlem, pointed out that the girl had said she had “shouted: ‘stop’” to Adlem.

But the officer had changed the word ‘shouted’ to ‘said.’

This could be crucial, the court heard, because others had been sleeping close nearby but no one reported hearing her.

Mr Fielding pressed the officer, saying: “She said ‘shouted’ - but you’ve repeatedly changed that to ‘said.’

“Why did you do that?”

The officer replied: “I can’t answer that.”

However, when the judge asked whether the mistake was inadvertent, the officer replied that it was.

Mr Fielding continued: “It’s not something you should have done, is it, officer?”

She replied: “No.”

Mr Fielding asked why she, a detective trained to follow the truth wherever it led, had not thought to challenge the girl’s account of shouting out while others slept nearby.

The officer replied: “Obviously with children you’ve got to understand their body language; she’s not comfortable and I need to get her account and it’s important that I do that.

“On reflection I may not have noticed (I had changed the word) - but it wasn’t purposeful.”

Mr Adlem denies two counts of sexually assaulting the pre-teen.

The trial, expected to concluded early next week, continues today, Thursday.