A teenager who says she was raped by her uncle when she was seven said yesterday that although she never wanted the case to end up in court, she would not forgive her attacker.

Now 18, the girl testified that she had wanted her family to talk to her uncle and let him know that what he had done to her was bad. However, she had never intended it to go this far.

She told the judge and jurors that she suffers the effects of the rape to this day.

When asked by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono whether she forgave the accused, her reply was quick and cold: "No, I don't".

She insisted she had been raped on five occasions, emphasising that she was telling the truth.

Even after she had spoken up about what had happened, her mother still accepted her uncle into the house and treated him normally, something she couldn't understand because she was hurt by what happened, the victim said.

"If it were for my mother she would have closed her eyes to what happened and it was my stepfather who wanted to go ahead with the proceedings" she added.

The witness described in detail how her uncle had taken her on the roof of her grandmother's top floor flat, where he also lived, and told her to lie down on the floor and take her pants off. He then committed lewd acts and even had sex with her. He would tell her it would not hurt but it did, every time, she said.

He would threaten her that he would throw her off the roof if she said anything to anyone.

The same thing happened on three consecutive Saturdays. Then, on the fourth weekend, he took her into his bedroom where he had sex with her.

The following Sunday, her uncle took her to the track in Ħal Far to watch the quarter mile race and while they were in the car, he unzipped his trousers and committed lewd acts, forcing her to participate.

He stopped when he realised there were people nearby, she said.

It was then that she begged her mother not to make her go back to her grandmother's house on the weekends. In fact, she stopped going there.

However, it was only when she was taking personal and social development lessons at school, when she was 12 or 13 years old, that she spoke up, having realised what had happened to her when she was younger.

She first told a friend about it and asked her whether she could tell her (the friend's) mother so that she would then contact the victim's mother.

Asked why she had done so, she said she was scared of telling her mother, fearing she would get a beating. In fact, her mother did not believe her at first, until she took her to a doctor and it was confirmed that she was not a virgin.

"My mother was torn between helping me and trying to help my uncle", she said.

She said that tension grew between her and her mother and family ties broke down to the point where her uncles and grandfather were threatening her mother. She couldn't understand why her grandfather got involved because he was the one to tell her mother to file a police report and call a lawyer.

Following an argument between her mother and her stepfather, she went to live with her mother at her grandmother's house and her grandfather told her mother to go to the police and stop the proceedings. He also threatened her mother that she would be thrown out of the house if she continued with the case, the victim testified.

Replying to questions by the prosecution, she said that even today she was still suffering from the effects of the rape as she was uncomfortable in being intimate with her boyfriend.

She felt sad whenever she saw her friends getting excited about boys or new boyfriends because she could never forget what had happened to her.

The case continues and jurors are expected to retire to deliberate tomorrow.

No names can be mentioned by court order.

Lawyer Nadine Sant, from the Attorney General's Office prosecuted.

Lawyer Joe Mifsud appeared for the accused.