Father Denies He Abused Adopted Girls During Flight

Father Denies He Abused Adopted Girls During Flight

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

A man from Arizona who, with his wife, is accused of beating their newly adopted 4-year-old Russian girls on a flight from Moscow to New York in May, said in court yesterday that he believed in corporal punishment. But he added that his contact with his daughters was nothing more than a pat or a tap.

''We did not beat, abuse or neglect our children on that flight,'' the father, Richard Thorne, said.

Mr. Thorne, 48, described corporal punishment as ''a swat on the behind.'' He said he believed that such a response was appropriate ''when you've tried to do everything else you can.''

''It's a way to get the child's attention,'' he testified in Family Court in Queens. ''Not to hurt the child. Just get the child's attention and show your displeasure.''

Earlier, the mother, Karen Thorne, completed her testimony, which was highlighted by an acknowledgment on Wednesday that by the time of the flight she was so angry and frustrated by the children's behavior in their nine days together that she slapped one girl on the hand. That slap, Mrs. Thorne said, came after the girl had slapped the woman's face five or six times. Mrs. Thorne said that she had told the girl to ''shut up'' but that she had ''never screamed, never yelled at her.''

Under cross-examination, Mrs. Thorne, 43, said she could not recall her husband's having told an investigator: ''That's the problem with Americans. They don't hit their children enough.''

But she did not deny that Mr. Thorne had made such a statement. She also said she did not recall having told another investigator: ''Yes, we hit them. We couldn't control them.''

Three other passengers who were also bringing back children whom they had adopted in Russia and two flight attendants have said that the Thornes slapped and yelled at the children, one of whom screamed throughout the flight on May 28.

Mr. and Mrs. Thorne testified that the witnesses had misunderstood what was occurring. The Thornes said a slapping sound that the passengers said they had heard was the parents' clapping as they tried to engage the girls in music on their headphones.

When the plane landed at Kennedy International Airport, the girls were taken from the Thornes, and they have been living in foster homes while the Thornes fight six counts of abuse and try to regain custody. The couple also face criminal charges of abuse, neglect and endangering the welfare of children.

Lawyers for the Thornes have argued that the girls, who had lived in an orphanage all their lives, were psychologically damaged and were out of control from the moment the parents met them in Russia, about nine days before the flight.

Lawyers for the city, led by Katerina Contaratos of the Administration for Children's Services, said the Thornes had crossed the line from discipline to abuse. The agency has custody of the girls even though they are now in foster care in Arizona.

The Legal Aid lawyer who is representing the girls, Emanuel Saidlower, suggested in cross-examining Mrs. Thorne that she had composed her version of the events and had that version reinforced by numerous conversations since the incident.

He also suggested that the other passengers had no motive for testifying against the Thornes, while Mrs. Thorne had a motive for denying the accusations because she could lose custody and face a jail term.

In the cross-examination, Mrs. Thorne said it had been inappropriate when her Russian hostess had slapped one girl on the behind after the girl had kicked some strangers. But the mother seemed to have another view when describing her own slapping of the other girl on the hand.

''It's probably not the appropriate way under normal circumstances,'' Mrs. Thorne said. ''We were not in normal circumstances.''

''So it wasn't appropriate?'' Ms. Contaratos asked.

''She stopped,'' Mrs. Thorne said, suggesting that the slap had at least been effective.

Asked whether she had done anything wrong on the flight, Mrs. Thorne said, ''I can't think of anything, no.''

Testimony is to resume next week.