'I took it as a joke, I was thinking, wait, is that for real?'

David Shaw of Lebanon watches the testimony of his former girlfriend during his sexual assault trial in Strafford County Superior Court on Thursday. (Rochester Voice photo)

DOVER - The mother of a Barrington girl said to have been sexually assaulted by a Lebanon man testified on Thursday that she first learned of the alleged assaults at a Pop Warner football game in August of 2016.

"One of the male players had asked if he could take his cup off at the end of the game and was told no, wait till you get in the car," the mom testified. "And (her daughter, the alleged victim) said, 'Oh, that's when Dave makes me lick his penis.'"

It was the most riveting testimony in the third day in the trial of David A. Shaw, 48, of 294 Lower Guinea Road, Lebanon, Maine, who is accused of engaging in a pattern of sexual abuse of the child, who was around 8 at the time of the alleged incidents, said to have occurred in her bedroom at their Barrington home between August 2015 and August 2016.

The mother, whose name is not being published by The Rochester Voice due to privacy concerns, said she vividly remembered that fateful day of Aug. 22, 2016.

"I took it as a joke," the mom said under questioning from Assistant County Attorney Tim Sullivan. "I was thinking, 'wait, is that for real?'"

She said when they got to the car to drive home, her daughter was in the back seat when she asked her again, did she really do that to Shaw, the mom's live-in boyfriend.

"She said, 'Ya,' the mother said. "My legs were shaking, I was shocked and my heart was going fast."

She said her daughter then stopped talking and grew very silent.

After taking the daughter and her younger sister to McDonald's for a snack as she had promised, they drove home and she put the younger daughter to bed after which she took the other daughter into the livingroom to talk about what she had said at the football game and in the car.

"She said, 'I don't want Dave to go to jail,'" the mom testified.

Soon afterward she put the daughter to bed and called Barrington Police, who dispatched two officers who came to the house immediately and began their investigation into Shaw, who was ultimately indicted on sexual assault charges by a Strafford County grand jury.

Defense lawyer Kristen Guilmette focused much of her cross-examination of the mom on her daughter's symptoms with autism, which she was first diagnosed with at 2.

"She doesn't like change, does she?" she asked.

"No," the mom answered.

Guilmette then had the mom recount through questioning how when Shaw first moved into their Barrington home, the daughter didn't like it.

She also questioned the mom about how when Dave's two biological children visited - one of whom was a boy - her daughters often laughed and made jokes about how he had a penis.

"The girls would try to pull his pants down, right?" Guilmette asked.

"Yes," the mom said.

"And Dave's pants?"

"Yes."

Guilmette ended her questioning by asking the mom if she ever asked her daughter follow-up questions about how the alleged sex acts occurred, to which she replied, "No."

The trial is expected to wind up on Tuesday with one more witness to be presented by the state followed by closing arguments.

Shaw faces up to life in prison if convicted.