A 13-year-old Scottish girl has told a court that she pulled a knife and axe on a man in the midst of an incident where he allegedly passed remarks of a sexual nature towards her and pushed her to the ground, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The girl claims that 22-year-old Bulgarian national, Ilia Belov, told her, “Come here, sexy, I’ll show you how to have a good time.”
He is accused of having attacked the child, the 12-years-of age, on an area of green at St Ann Lane in the Lochee area of Dundee on the 23rd of August last year. He is also accused of using threatening or abusive behaviour.
Below, who denies the charges, is also accused of following the child and three other girls aged between 12 and 14 years.
Giving evidence via video link before Dundee Sheriff’s Court, the girl said that she had been walking outside with her sister and other friends when the group passed two men before she alleges Belo made the remarks towards her. She said that this made her “angry” and that she “shouted” at him.
She said that her sister also shouted at them, but their other friends attempted to pull them away and that the man made a call before a woman approached and pushed her and threw her sister to the ground.
The girl said that she then attempted to “go for” the woman, but that Belo pushed her head into a pole with force.
The Scottish Sun reports that the witness told the court, “I went to basically go for the lassie. I went to go back and push her out the way, and the laddie went and smashed my head off the pole.
“He pushed my head right down. There was a lot of force. My head hit the bannister.” She says this is when she produced a knife and an axe from her waistband.
She alleges that her sister was kicked in the head and that she brandished the weapons because she was in fear that her sister would be assaulted again.
Counsel for the accused put it to the girl that his client had pushed her by the shoulder and that he was responding to being called “an immigrant”, but the child denied this.
A police officer who was passing nearby the scene of the alleged incident says that he became aware of it when he saw a girl in an “extremely distressed” state running towards his marked police vehicle.
He described the scene as “chaotic” and that claims were made to him that an assault had taken place.
CCTV footage showed the group of girls walking as they passed Belov before the girls turned around in what appeared to be a reaction to something being said. They then carried on walking before Belov was shown approaching them again.
Another camera captured footage of what appears to show Belov pushing one of the girls, causing her to fall.
A 14-year-old witness told the court that despite the girls’ pleas for him to leave them alone, the accused kept following them.
Belov denies all charges as the trial continues.