Defense seeks to undermine accuser’s credibility in New Hampshire youth center sex abuse case

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawyers for a man charged with raping a teenage girl at a New Hampshire youth holding facility are trying to erode the accuser’s credibility at the defendant’s trial. Lawyers for Victor Malavet suggested in court Wednesday that the accuser who was held as a teen at a youth detention center in Concord had a history of lying. The woman testified that she denied having been sexually assaulted when asked in 2002 and later in 2017 and 2019. She said she lied the first time because she was still at the facility and feared retaliation, and later because she didn’t think anyone would believe her. Malavet is facing 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault.