A woman who has accused a touring international body modifier of illegal genital mutilation at a Newcastle West tattoo parlour in 2015 has clashed with defence lawyers in a Sydney court and admitted she contradicted her police statements.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at times lashed out at questions during a heated cross-examination in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Thursday.
Howard Rollins, a 42-year-old US citizen also known as Luna Cobra, is on trial after pleading not guilty to being an accessory to female genital mutilation in January, 2015.
Mr Rollins has accepted the procedure took place but denies being in the room of the Newcastle tattoo parlour at the time or knowing exactly what kind of procedure was to occur. The woman has throughout the judge-only trial accused Mr Rollins of being in the room, aiding the procedure and offering advice to the person performing it.
She has accused Mr Rollins and the other man of "burning away my labia with a branding iron". Under cross-examination from defence barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, the woman claimed Mr Rollins held her labia while she was injected with an anaesthetic before having it removed.
But Ms Cunneen said the woman had never claimed in her police statements - made in February earlier this year and on Sunday - that Mr Rollins had touched any part of her body. On several occasions the woman veered off topic and had to be reminded by Judge Ian Bourke about answering questions asked of her.
"Yeah that's what's written there, but when I was getting the needles done, his hand was there. He was wearing gloves," the woman said on Thursday.
Ms Cunneen then accused the woman of a second inconsistency in her statements, asking: "He was wearing gloves was he? Haven't you said elsewhere that he never put any gloves on?" At that point the woman said: "I don't want to do this anymore."
She has previously told the court Mr Rollins touched her during the procedure, but was eventually forced to admit she had not made that claim to police.
The woman repeatedly called Ms Cunneen "rude" and her questions "inappropriate" and reacted angrily when it was suggested she couldn't remember because she had taken Valium tablets and received an anaesthetic.
"No it's not hard for me to remember, I remember," she said. "I know my vagina like the back of my hand."
