A schoolgirl told a court she was forced to eat cat food when there was nothing else in the house.

The 18-year-old claimed she was told there was no money for food and rarely ate meals in the house she lived in at Kirkton Avenue in Knightswood, Glasgow.

While staying with Derek Carrick, she said she was bullied "because of the way she smelled and looked".

The witness said there was a cat that stayed in the kitchen but at times the litter tray was over flowing and made it smell.

Carrick, 42, from Knightswood, is accused of wilfully neglecting and ill-treating three girls then ten, nine and three, between February 1, 2011 and October 31, 2013.

She said she lived with Carrick and two other girls when she was around 11 or 12 years old and left when she was 13.

They weren't allowed in the living room unless she was going to the kitchen and that was to try and make something to eat.

The girl said Carrick didn't always make anything and "wasn't always awake, sometimes he would be asleep for a long period of time".

She was asked if she ate breakfast and said "most of the time, no" and that "there wasn't anything there to eat".

The witness told jurors "occasionally" Carrick made dinner.

She said: "Most of the time there wasn't anything there and if there was, it wasn't enough."

Procurator fiscal depute Ruth Ross-Davie asked: "On occasion when there was no food, what did you do?"

She replied: "There was a few occasions I ate cat food."

Asked if she told Carrick about that, the girl said: "I mentioned it a few times, his response was he didn't have any money, it wasn't his fault."

She said the cat was kept in the kitchen and if there was clean litter, it would be changed but it would go "weeks and weeks on end" without it.

Jurors heard the bathroom in the flat smelled and the bath had bugs in it.

The witness said: "I tried not to spend much time in there."

The teenager said there was no sanitary products for her to use and Carrick didn't buy any.

She told the court: "There was never really anything like that in the house."

Miss Ross-Davie asked if she had any difficulty with her hair and was told she had "head lice continuously".

She also said she was given second-hand black jogging bottoms for school.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Margaret Breslin the witness told how she was made fun of at school because her clothes weren't new.

Miss Breslin put to her: "You didn't want to be different from all the others."

The witness replied: "No, because it's bad enough being bullied at school because of the way I smelled and the way I looked without having to get bullied for something else."

She said she didn't have the time or energy to wash her hair, and agreed a shower facility was in the flat.

Carrick denies the charge and the trial before sheriff Martin Jones QC continues.