A young man charged with sexual assault and sexual interference involving his niece took the stand Monday afternoon, on day four of his trial in Whitehorse.

It’s alleged the man, who cannot be identified as he was under the age of 18 when the offences are alleged to have taken place, touched his niece in a sexual way a number of times when the two were alone together at his parents’ home several years ago.

Questioned by his lawyer, Malcolm Campbell, the man described himself as an active teen who spent most of his time after school at friends’ houses, playing sports and video games.

He said he wasn’t very close to his niece, that he was more inclined to hang out with his brothers.

Sometimes a group of them – siblings, nieces, nephews and cousins – would play tag or go to the park.

Although the girl and her brother lived with him and his parents for a time, he said he doesn’t recall ever being alone with her, just the two of them.

Earlier on Monday, Crown prosecutor Leo Lane closed his case after calling five witnesses:

• the girl’s mother and the young man’s older sister;

• Const. Mike Simpson of the RCMP’s Specialized Response Unit, who interviewed the girl after she made the complaint last year;

• two social workers who worked with the family, and;

• the girl herself, who was questioned via webcam from a witness room down the hall.

Two lengthy video interviews were also played in court, both filmed last year – one with Simpson and a social worker, the other with a female RCMP officer.

In these interviews, the girl described how she and her younger brother spent some time at her grandmother’s and grandfather’s houses growing up. The young man lived there with his siblings, and was often around.

She described something called the “honey game,” in which her uncle would ask her to be his honey, or girlfriend, and hold her hand.

She said this meant she’d have to kiss him and that he would touch her “all over” with his hands.

She didn’t like this game, she said, but he’d cajole her, telling her he wouldn’t be her friend or be nice to her if she didn’t participate.

Once, in his bedroom, she said he grabbed her and got on top of her, naked.

She told him to stop.

“I’ll let you play a video game,” she said he told her.

“I didn’t like it. I was being stupid letting him do it.”

She described another time, when he asked her to touch his penis. She did, then went upstairs to wash her hands.

“That was so gross,” she told him.

Once, they were home alone together at her grandpa’s house and her uncle asked her to tickle him, she said.

She did, begrudgingly, because he told her she could watch the movie Piranhas if she did.

She alleges he also asked her to hump him. She refused.

This isn’t the first time sexual-abuse allegations have surfaced against the young man, court heard.

Back in 2010, one of the girl’s cousins claimed he had sexually assaulted her, prompting an RCMP investigation.

The man testified Monday that he remembered talking to police about this, but said nothing came of it. He never sexually abused either niece, he said.

A social worker testified last week that, after that investigation, the teen was not supposed to be left alone with younger female relatives.

The social worker said he made this clear to the boy’s mother when the girl was living at her home.

One day in 2011, he made an unscheduled visit to the home. The teen answered, shirtless and red in the face, the social worker testified. The girl was also present.

He was concerned to learn the boy’s mother wasn’t home.

The girl told Campbell that she had been tickling her uncle and watching Piranhas when the social worker dropped by.

The young man said he doesn’t recall the social worker coming by at all.

“I don’t have a reason to remember it,” he said. “None of this happened, so I have no reason to look that far back and think about it.”

He denied ever touching his niece inappropriately, nor asking her to do so to him.

In cross-examining the girl, Campbell read excerpts of a transcript from a 2010 interview with the RCMP regarding the allegations her cousin had made.

In this interview, police asked if she’d ever seen her uncle naked, and if anything had ever happened to her at her grandparents’ houses that made her feel uncomfortable.

She said no to both questions.

Campbell asked if the girl had been telling the truth four years ago. She didn’t reply, looking away from the camera.

He re-asked the question several times. Judge Peter Chisholm also prompted her.

She began to cry.

After a short break, she admitted she wasn’t being honest with police back then – that her uncle had done things to her that made her feel uncomfortable.

“I’m telling you guys the truth,” she said. “Maybe when I was (younger) I was scared.”

Court also heard that two cousins in the family allegedly participated in sexual activity with each other, and that the girl was aware of these goings-on.

The trial continued this afternoon.