The testimony in the Petit Family murder trial was as grisly as ever on Thursday but this time the acts of torture and sex abuse had been inflicted on triple murder suspect Joshua Komisarjevsky, not by him, RadarOnline.com has learned.

When the defense took the stand for their second day in the New Haven, Connecticut courtroom, the testimony was again from New York University  psychologist Dr. Leo Shea, who told jurors how as a 14-year-old the accused killer had carved the word "hate" on his arm because he found self-mutilation "soothing," reported the Hartford Courant.

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Komisarjevsky is the second suspect to stand trial in Connecticut's most horrific murder and has been on trial since September 19, charged with 17 counts including murder, abduction and assault in the triple homicide of a mother and her two children, and the beating of their father.

With the prosecution in the Petit family murder trial resting their case on Monday, it was the turn of the defense team for Joshua Komisarjesky to take the stand in the New Haven, Connecticut court room on Wednesday, RadarOnline.com can report.

In a desperate bid to prevent the accused triple murderer from joining his accomplice on death row, Komisarjesky's attorneys first focused their attention on his sidekick, Steven Hayes, and his behavior in the days and weeks before the 2007 killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela,11, reported the Hartford Courant.

Despite the defendant's chilling confession earlier in the trial that detailed how he beat Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor in the horrific attack, on the head with a baseball bat and then sexually assaulted his 11-year-old daughter while she was tied to a bed, his attorneys are arguing that their client only intended to break in and steal the family's belongings, not to kill them.