A girl who admitted on television to inventing sex abuse allegations against her father had been offered a mobile phone to withdraw the claims, a magistrate heard yesterday.

“A mobile phone was something big for a young girl,” Police Inspector Louise Calleja said, arguing that the girl only withdrew her claims before the child’s advocate when her father’s family offered the mobile phone.

The officer insists she still believed the girl’s original version.

Ms Calleja was being cross-examined by lawyer Tonio Azzopardi, representing the father, Emanuel Camilleri, who filed a constitutional case claiming breach of his right to a fair trial.

Mr Camilleri had been found guilty of defiling his daughter, Leanne, now 20, when she was nine, and sentenced to two years imprisonment. The sentence was confirmed on appeal.

The girl recently withdrew the claim against her father, even appearing on the television show Xarabank giving a revised version of the events.

As a result, Mr Camilleri was provisionally released from prison pending the outcome of a criminal case against his estranged wife who is facing perjury charges in connection with the daughter’s sexual abuse allegations.

The girl apologised to Ms Calleja for lying to her and said she never wanted her father to be imprisoned as a result of her allegations. Ms Calleja said the girl told her she had been coerced by her mother, Lisa May.

Despite the public apology, Ms Calleja, a veteran when it comes to investigating sex abuse claims and who lectures overseas on child abuse and human trafficking, insisted she still believed the girl’s original version of events.

“I feel and I’m convinced her original version reflected reality, was credible and consistent,” she said, adding that even after the girl recanted her evidence before the children’s advocate, she testified in court for a third time saying she was abused by her father.

The children’s advocate, Stephanie Galea, had produced a report noting that the girl had changed her version. However, Magistrate Miriam Hayman had refused to have the report included in the records of the proceedings. She also refused to hear the advocate’s testimony insisting on hearing the girl directly in her chambers.

“It was a court order and I obeyed it,” Ms Calleja said, adding she did not object to Dr Galea testifying or her report containing the child’s withdrawal being submitted in court.

When speaking to the magistrate, the girl insisted on the original version of events.

In a previous sitting, Dr Azzopardi grilled Ms Calleja about what he termed as her failure to take account of about 20 police reports involving allegations of child neglect by the child’s mother. The officer said the reports did not come to her attention when she ran a search on the police’s computer system and Dr Azzopardi insisted that the omission was serious and that she had not “missed a mouse but an elephant”.

Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef ruled yesterday that the child neglect reports were not relevant for the case before him. Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, for Ms Calleja, took the cue to quip back that the officer “did not miss any elephant because the elephant did not exist”.

Ms Calleja was asked whether she considered rather odd that the girl should send a birthday card to her father containing loving words when she had accused him of raping her. Dr Azzopardi argued that it made no sense for the girl to act so lovingly towards her father when he was supposed to have abused her.

Ms Calleja replied that such behaviour was well documented internationally and child victims would often display confused emotions to their abusers. “It is not at all unusual for victims to have mixed feelings of love and hate.”

Asked about the declaration made by the girl’s 14-year-old brother shortly before he died from cancer that she had lied, Ms Calleja said the matter formed part of a civil case and not the criminal proceedings. Final submissions on the case against Mr Camilleri had been made in 2009 and the boy died in December 2010. She did not know about his claims, Ms Calleja said.

Dr Azzopardi, asked the court to allow his client’s daughter to testify again in view of her declarations on national television.

The case is expected to continue on July 23.