“Yes.”
“Do you think there is anything wrong with you?”
“No.”
“But you went along with it. Why?”
“I was seventeen at the time. I didn’t think I had much choice. I figured if my parents wanted to waste their money, it wasn’t my problem.”
“Lastly, what do you hope happens here today. What would justice be in your eyes?”
“For him to go to prison forever.”
“Thank you, Ms Beckinsale.”
The defence lawyer took her place in front of the witness stand before leaning on the lectern and folding her arms. “Ms Beckinsale, did Dr. Van Gould ever attempt actual intercourse with you? Did he ever have you touch him? Did he ever appear to take any sexual gratification in your treatments?”
“I have no idea. Not from what I remember, but like I said, I was drugged.”
“When you say drugged, you mean the medication he prescribed to you with instructions for taking them before your sessions with him, correct?”
“Yes. It was only that last day, when I forgot to take them, that I realized what he was doing to me.”
“You said ‘realized what he was doing to me’. Before that day, what did you think was happening to you?”
"I thought he was trying to hypnotize the gay away."
“There was no vaginal pain? "
“Nothing. I didn’t feel any different.”
“No queasiness? No marks or bruises? No symptoms that you were suffering of any kind in the months beforehand?”
“Objection!” came the sharp call of the prosecutor. “Irrelevant.”
"Your honour, my client is accused of being a vile monster, using his medical practice and knowledge to prey on innocents for his own sexual gratification. The fact that he took just as much care in these treatments to make sure his patients suffered no ill side effects, the same way he does in all of his treatments, goes to show he viewed these sessions as medical treatments deserving of the same standard of care."
“Overruled. Answer please.”
“No. I didn’t notice anything different except for feeling pissed off with my parents for putting me through a waste of time.”
“I see. Now, your parents. You say you were upset with them. Did my client forbid them from being in the room with you?”
“No.”
“Why weren’t they there?”
“Objection! Witness has already stated the answer in submitted evidence.”
“Overruled.”
Ava shifted in her seat. “I told him I didn’t want them there.”
“So, just to clarify, my client, who you have accused of sexual misconduct, of assault, offered for your parents to be in the room with you, but you said no.”
“Yes.”
“Ms Beckinsale do you think it’s odd for a man aiming to assault a girl would give two people that should protect her the opportunity to be in the same room? Surely her parents would be the last people a predator would want in the same vicinity?”