Tennis dad told his daughter, 11, she was a ‘dog being told what to do’ in expletive ridden note, court hears
Michelle Horne tells court her ex John De'Viana was 'very controlling' and forced their elder daughter to hold a racket from the age of ten months
A FATHER described one of his daughters as being "like a f***ing dog being told what to do" as he coached her to become a tennis star, a court has heard.
John De'Viana has been accused of cruelty to his daughters with the court hearing he described his daughters as "idiots" on statistic sheets covered in expletives.
The court heard that the 55-year-old wrote about his daughters, writing: "what a f***, gave up" and "it was f***ing appalling" when his daughter was just 13 - with the young girl now 21.
Her sister Nephe was also allegedly abused, with the now 19-year-old described as "a f***ing dog being told what to do" when she was just 11.
The dad, of Essex, has been accused of forcing the girls through years of physical and emotional abuse in his quest to get them to Wimbledon.
He admitted in court that he sensed his daughters were not enjoying the sport as they had previously during the training regime, saying: "I began to understand the crossover line between coach and father."
He said that if the girls told him that they wanted to stop, he would stop.
The girls' mother Michelle Horne denied lying about their "coach from hell" father's cruel training regime to win a custody battle, having told a court that her ex was "very controlling" and forced their elder daughter to hold a racket from the age of ten months.
De'Viana, 55, is accused of verbally and physically abusing his two daughter in his obsessive drive to turn them into Wimbledon champions.
Jurors have heard he took his daughters Monaei and Nephe out of school to make them do all day coaching sessions from 5.30am until they went to bed.
And he allegedly called the girls "motherf**kers" and "fat, lazy c**ts" from the age of nine of ten if he felt they were not training hard enough.
Monaei, now 21, claims he spat at her after she failed in a tournament and on other occasions hit her round the head, drew an L for "loser" on her forehead and locked her in a caravan.
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Nephe, now 19, was once a poster girl for the Lawn Tennis Association and featured in ads alongside Andy Murray.
She claims her father punched and kicked her after one training session, with his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming.
Another time she was given a new tennis bag by sponsors but her father made her carry her kit in a bin liner to "humiliate" her, the court heard.
Both girls quit their promising tennis careers after their parents split and they went to live with their mum Michelle Horne, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.
De'Viana's barrister Tara Adkin QC accused Ms Horne of trying to "rewrite history" during custody proceedings by portraying training sessions as cruelty.
She said: "You have done that because you are in a battle with your former partner over contact with your children."
Ms Horne answered: "There were court proceedings but what I'm saying is true."
Jurors then heard De'Viana had forced Monaei to hold a tennis racket from the age of ten months.
She said: "She couldn't really hold the racket she was just a baby. He put it in her hand.
"She couldn't understand it at that age. At 10 months old she didn't really know what it was."
Ms Horne said De'Viana would make Monaei play against her will from the age of three.
She said: "She didn't have any choice over what he made her do."
Ms Adkin challenged her: "You can't force a three-year-old to do something they don't want to do."
The mother replied: "You can and he did. He was very controlling, he did what he wanted to do.
"Nobody got a say, I didn't get a say. He was very manipulating towards all of us.
"I never witnessed him doing the physical acts that came out afterwards, the physical violence."
Jurors earlier saw Monaei's police interview where she described De'Viana hitting Nephe for not playing well enough.
She said: "I could hear him hitting her and her crying, but it was muffled because his hand was over her mouth.
"There was one time she came out bleeding, she was wiping it away."
Monaei added: "We thought if we pretended we were injured that would help, but he forced us to carry on.
"We pretended to be ill, which didn't work either. There was nothing we could do."
De'Viana, of Ilford, Essex, denies to two counts of cruelty to a person aged under 16.
The trial continues.
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