Farrow tells of offer to break Allen's legs

NEW YORK (Reuter, AP) - The actress Mia Farrow, testifying yesterday for the second day in her bitter child custody dispute with the film director Woody Allen, said a former husband had offered to have both of Allen's legs broken, but added that he had only been joking.

Farrow has been married to singer Frank Sinatra and conductor Andre Previn. A question about which one was more likely to make such a suggestion was disallowed after an objection from her lawyer, Eleanor Alter.

Farrow admitted she fired a psychologist who questioned allegations her estranged lover Allen had sexually abused one of the couple's adopted children. She said she sacked the psychologist two weeks after the woman said 'it was difficult to be certain' of whether Allen had molested Dylan, their adopted seven-year-old daughter.

Farrow said she was fired on the advice of lawyers, but said it was not because of concerns that she would persuade Dylan to change her story. Dylan has said that Allen molested her last August at Farrow's summer home in Connecticut.

It was the second day Farrow was peppered with questions by Allen's lawyer, Elkan Abromowitz. She said she did not know or could not remember more than 24 times during his painstaking questioning.

Farrow testified on Thursday that Allen's affair with her oldest daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, began at least a year earlier than he said it did. Her voice shaky, she then admitted she punched the young woman after finding nude pictures Allen took of her.

Allen has said the romance began in late December 1991 or early January 1992, when Miss Previn was a college freshman. Farrow testified that Miss Previn told her she had met Allen on Saturdays throughout her senior year in high school, which ended in mid-1991.

Farrow conceded that after finding the nude pictures of Miss Previn in January 1992, she twisted the young woman's head to force her to look at them. A few days later, 'I just pounced on her', Farrow said. 'I hit her on the side of the face and on her shoulders.'

Farrow, testifying for the first time in the custody battle, also accused Allen of inappropriately playing in bed with another, much younger, adopted daughter and said she feared he had had a homosexual relationship.

The court is to rule who will get custody of the couple's two adopted children, Dylan, 7, and son Moses, 14, and their biological son Satchel, 5.

(Photograph omitted)