One of young girls allegedly lured into a life of prostitution by Reza Moazami told the B.C. Supreme Court Thursday she couldn’t remember working for him.

The witness, who can only be identified by the initials H.W., shocked Crown prosecutors by recanting a police statement she made claiming Moazami was her pimp when she was 16 years old and once beat her with a shower rod.

“I was a drug addict. I was a liar. I don’t think I’m a credible witness,” she testified.

In 2011, the young woman told police Moazami threw her into the shower of a Robson Street condo and started attacking her, but on Thursday she insisted she couldn’t remember an assault taking place.

She also said she had no recollection of working as a prostitute.

Her testimony led to several tense exchanges between H.W. and Justice Catherine Bruce, who reprimanded her for repeatedly speaking out of turn.

At one point, H.W. asked, “Could you be a little more polite? I’m getting really stressed.”

The teenager told the court she started selling sex for drugs when she was 11 or 12 and had been addicted to heroin, but that she was now clean and had been for months.

At times H.W. appeared frustrated with the Crown, and told prosecutors, “You lied to me.”

Bruce eventually adjourned the case and advised the witness to speak to a lawyer about the consequences of committing perjury.

Crown is expected to call eight other young women to testify against Moazami, who is accused of running an underage prostitution ring with girls as young as 14 years old.

Lawyers claim the accused moved teens around different high-end downtown Vancouver condo apartments that he rented, and once brought them to Alberta to work the Calgary Stampede.

The Vancouver resident has been charged with 36 counts including sexual exploitation and sexual interference. He’s also the first person to be charged with trafficking underage girls in B.C.

None of the allegations against him have been proven in court. His trial is expected to last several months.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Mi-Jung Lee