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He’s the bravest boy in New York.
A 9-year-old sex-abuse victim went toe to toe with his alleged molester’s lawyer in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday — telling the mean man in a suit to “stop being a bully!”
“I don’t believe that you’re trying to do the right thing,” the child shouted, rising from his chair and stamping his feet in rage after the lawyer suggested that former school aide Gregory Atkins had actually been “nice” to the boy.
Atkins is charged with first-degree sexual abuse for allegedly repeatedly molesting the boy last February inside the boys room and the auditorium of the well-regarded PS 87 on the Upper West Side.
“He treated you nicely, didn’t he?” the lawyer, David Segal, said of Atkins.
“Shut up!” the kid snapped in response, his voice loud and his eyes filling with tears. “And stop being a bully!”
Pressed to answer the question, the kid yelled, “He did until that something happened. On one day, something very, very, very bad happened.
“He told me to strip down naked!”
When the lawyer said at another point, “Mr. Atkins said he never did anything to you,” the kid snapped back angrily.
“Yeah, and you believe him!” he shouted.
“Are you trying to get me angry, because if you are, I suggest you stop,” the kid added, standing up and giving the chair behind him a kick.
He started crying again, his face red and his lip trembling.
When the defense lawyer suggested to the boy that he try to remain calm, the boy snapped again.
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
Atkins is accused of molesting him for several weeks, massaging the boy’s feet, telling him to disrobe so he could “check for bruises,” and requesting a sex act in the auditorium.
Atkins, who is insisting the child made the story up in retribution for being disciplined, was indicted last February.
In September, prosecutors added child-pornography charges.