National restrictions should be imposed on Scotland's strip clubs to prevent new brothels being opened, an expert has advised MSPs.

Sex work expert Prof Phil Hubbard said there was an inconsistent approach in England and Wales leading to appeals over the refusal of licences.
But the strip clubs' trade association warned against imposing a "draconian regime" on local authorities.
The comment came as parliament was considering new licensing legislation.
Prof Hubbard, from Kent University, told the Scottish Parliament's local government committee: "What we have in England and Wales is a situation that I would like to see avoided in Scotland, where we have a licensing regime for these establishments in one local authority but not in a neighbouring one."
He added: "We have a situation where some local authorities will ban nudity and others will not.
"The whole situation has led to a whole range of appeal cases and litigation in which legal unreasonableness and inconsistency have been raised as valid concerns, and some of these appeals have been upheld."
Prof Hubbard also said tough regulations were needed to restrict massage parlour owners from effectively licensing their premises as brothels.
His comments were backed by Zero Tolerance, which campaigns to reduce violence against women.
Co-director Laura Thomson said sexual entertainment was linked to prostitution, adding: "Women involved in prostitution are much more likely to be victims of violence, women feel unsafe around the venues, women working in the venues face abuse and harassment."
However, Janet Hood, licensing specialist at the Association of Licensed Adult Entertainment Venues Scotland, warned against a one-size-fits-all approach for councils.
She said the one-time ban on religious comedy film Life of Brian in Glasgow was an example of the diverse moral sensibilities in Scotland's communities.
Ms Hood argued: "We have to allow for local decision making, whether it is for sexual entertainment venues, alcohol licensing or any other form of licensing.
"I don't think it should be the purpose of the Scottish government to try to impose a draconian regime that had to be followed by elected members who are considering the requirements of what should happen in their communities."


You will probably have seen them in some of your favourite films, but what is it like in a real American high school?

5 November 2016 Last updated at 10:55 GMT
Meet Emily and Gabby, two students at Weir High School in West Virginia.
They took some time to show the Newsround cameras around their high school.
So is it a cool as it looks in the movies? Check out the video to get an inside peek.
And watch out for more from those cheerleaders and footballers next week with all the latest on the US Election.


A protest has been held in Derby over plans to start charging residents for garden waste to be collected.

The Â£40 annual charge is proposed by the Labour-led city council, and the protest was organised by the Conservative group.
The Conservatives described the charge as "a tax grab".
But the deputy leader of the council said the charge was necessary because of unfair cuts imposed by the Government.
Councillor Ranjit Banwait said: "Public services in Derby are on their knees at the moment and we are fighting for our very survival."
Mr Banwait said charging for garden waste collections would save the authority Â£1.6m a year, which would help it protect services such as children's centres and care homes.
Members of the Axe The Derby Bin Tax campaign were by the Ram statue on East Street, asking people to sign their petition.
Mr Banwait was by the statue with members of the Fair Deal For Derby campaign, which argues that the city has been unfairly affected by Government cuts.
This campaign collects signature petitions each Saturday.
The Conservative group of the council was not available for comment but a statement on its website said: "We want to stop Labour's cynical Brown Bin Tax being forced upon the people of Derby and need your support."
Mr Banwait said it was wrong to call the charge a tax because people could choose whether to pay it or not.
He said the current garden waste collections were unfair to people with small gardens or no gardens, because their council tax subsidised wealthy people with large gardens.
"A third of local authorities across the country already charge for their collection of garden waste," he said. "We have to prioritise."
Consultation over the proposed charges ends in January.


Funding to allow doctors in Shetland to pilot training for forensic medical examination services for victims of sexual crime has been announced.

There has been concern over women in the Northern Isles having to travel to Aberdeen for examinations.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson announced NHS Education Scotland (NES) would receive Â£76,000.
This will be used to review training and fund up to 50 places for doctors to complete the accredited course.
Speaking in Shetland, Mr Matheson said: "It is vitally important that we do all we can to ensure that the process of gathering evidence of rape or sexual assault doesn't cause more trauma to victims.
"I am pleased to hear first-hand the actions that NHS Shetland, Rape Crisis Scotland and others are taking to address a lack of provision in island communities.
"Making this training more accessible and this new funding for doctors to become qualified to carry out these examinations will mean that victims should no longer have to travel to the mainland for evidence to be taken."
Earlier this year, an independent watchdog strongly criticised the way victims of sexual assaults in Scotland were treated by police and the NHS.
The inspector of constabulary (HMICS) said services offered to some victims were "unacceptable" and lagged behind the rest of the UK, with many victims being examined in police stations.


Swansea City expect to announce at least one new signing in the coming days, says chairman Huw Jenkins.

Jenkins has already admitted Swansea need "at least two strikers" following the departures of Eder,Alberto Paloschi and Bafetimbi Gomis.
Tottenham forward Nacer Chadli and Leonardo Ulloa of Leicester have also been linked to the Liberty Stadium.
"We fully expect to make one or two additions in the next few days," said Jenkins.
"It was always going to be the case after the Euros that a lot of the transfer business would be done later than normal.
"It was always going to be a process of getting players out first so that we were in a position to take advantage of the transfer window and bring new players in.
"We also had to bring the numbers down in the squad to give the young players at the club the chance to progress and be involved in the first team.
"Coupled with one or two more experienced additions, we will be close to assembling a squad that will be ready for another competitive season in the Premier League."
There has been plenty of transfer speculation in the wake of American investment and rivals' interest in some of the Swans' star players.
The Premier League side have rejected a £10m bid from Everton for central defender Ashley Williams after the Wales and Swans captain was reported to be close to agreeing a move to Goodison Park.
"With the increased media coverage, especially the flood of speculation and stories on the internet, it is vital to try and keep the majority of our business behind closed doors wherever possible,'' said Jenkins.
"The more of our work that remains confidential, then the better chance we have of protecting our on-going negotiations and getting transfers over the finishing line.
"The more leaks we have and stories in the media, then the more chance there is of alerting other clubs and the transfer falling through.''
Jenkins also moved to reassure Swans fans after what he called a "frustrating summer" and hopes there will be more positive news to come after midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and winger Nathan Dyer signed new four-year contracts with the club.
"This pre-season has been difficult with the majority of European players returning late from the Euros and the timescale involved in the change of club ownership,'' he said.
"But I can assure you that every person connected to this football club has been working non-stop to get the squad right in all areas to start the season."
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Author Helen Bailey joked to her brother a cesspit at her home was a "good place to hide a body", a trial has heard.

The 51-year-old was found in the tank under the garage of her home in Royston, Hertfordshire, in July. She had been missing for three months.
Her partner, Ian Stewart, 56, has denied murdering her.
John Bailey told St Alban's Crown Court the joke was made in "full earshot" of Mr Stewart.
He said the quip was made during his first and only visit to his sister's new home in August 2013 - almost three years before her death.
"Helen showed us the house and garden, the outbuildings, the garage," he said.
"I think it was Helen, but it could have been one or both of them, mentioned an old well in the garage. I asked where and was directed to half way along the right hand side of the wall.
More on this and other news from Hertfordshire
"Then there was some banter, almost certainly instigated by Helen, that it was a good place to hide a body," he added.
Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, asked if both the defendant and Ms Bailey were present at the time.
"Yes, they were," he said.
"The well never featured in my consciousness during her disappearance," he told the court.
"But when the police officer visited to tell me he had discovered a body in an old well, the recollection of our discussions came back."
Asked about his sister, Mr Bailey described her as a "highly intelligent, extremely funny, a very witty person".
"She was very much somebody who would come to someone's aid as a friend, she would always put herself out there.
"She was very strong willed, she was quite a powerful person, but she was quite fragile. She suffered from anxiety throughout her life."
Friend Tracey Stratton, who told the court she had known Ms Bailey for 15 years, said she last saw her in person in January but they had kept in constant touch by email and text.
On 11 April, the two had exchanged emails about wedding dresses and the venue, the trial heard.
"There was nothing then to make me think there was anything wrong, she was excited about the future," she said.
Ms Stratton spoke of her worry when Ms Bailey did not answer her mobile or reply to a text later that day.
"Things just weren't right," she said.
Ian Stewart denies charges of murder, preventing a lawful burial, fraud and three counts of perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.


Mae Heddlu De Cymru wedi cyhoeddi enw'r wraig 66 oed fu farw ar ol cael ei tharo gan fan ar yr M4 nos Wener.

Roedd Patricia Joyce Connors yn ceisio dal ei chi oedd wedi rhedeg ar draffordd pan gafodd ei tharo gan fan.
Bu farw yn y fan a'r lle, a chafodd y ci ei ladd yn y digwyddiad hefyd.
Dywedodd teulu Ms Connors fod eu "calonnau wedi eu torri wrth geisio dod i dermau a'r ddamwain drasig hon" gan ei disgrifio fel "mam, mam-gu a hen gam-gu gariadus".
Dydy'r heddlu ddim wedi cyhoeddi ym mhle roedd Ms Connors yn byw.


An actress who has appeared in Doctor Who has described how she ended up face-to-face with a knifeman who had just stabbed a man to death.

Gemma Chan, who also appeared in Sherlock Holmes and is the partner of comedian Jack Whitehall, was giving evidence at the Old Bailey.
Schizophrenic Frederic Russell, 28, has been charged with murder but is not well enough to stand trial.
The jury must instead decide if he stabbed Colin Hammond in Putney.
The 65-year-old was killed last October as he walked down the street in west London.
Miss Chan told the court she was walking towards Putney Bridge underground station when she saw two men fighting on the ground.
The younger man, who had a goatee beard, was on top of an older man, kneeling on him and gripping his clothes around his neck with their faces a few inches apart, she said.
Miss Chan said she heard one of the men shout that he did not have money.
She said she retraced her steps and noticed that the younger man had his right hand pressed into the neck of the older man for about six seconds.
Miss Chan added that when the younger man pulled away, she saw there was a knife in his hand which she described as being about 12cm (5in) long.
The knifeman then got to his feet and walked along the road and disappeared out of view, she added.
The actress told jurors she went up to Mr Hammond, who was still lying on the ground and groaning and holding his neck, and asked him if he was alright.
She told the court that Mr Russell then reappeared and that the pair of them stared at each other for about three seconds before the road started to fill with people as a train had left Putney station.
Miss Chan said the defendant then disappeared in to the crowd of people.
She said she stayed with the victim until emergency services arrived later.
The case continues.


It's long been a cry from farmers in Scotland that more of the funding from the EU should come north of the border.

That argument is being revived at NFU Scotland's annual conference, near Perth, where members will debate the union's proposals for a post-Brexit subsidy mechanism.
A proportion of the money coming to the UK arrives only because of the high proportion of "less favoured" land in the Highlands and islands.
But the money is also shared with farmers in the rest of the UK.
Policy teams at the union have put forward a series of measures it wants the UK government to consider.
Re-assigning that funding is one of the proposals.
Joyce Campbell, a hill farmer in Sutherland, said: "All the glens, all the small crofting townships like Armadale here, anybody that's producing sheep and cattle are reliant on that subsidy to keep going.
"We spend our money with a conscience and a social conscience. That money is spent in our local shops."
In Scotland, 85% of the land mass is classed as "less favoured". The UK government has guaranteed that the current subsidy arrangements will be honoured until 2020 - even after we leave the European Union.
But after that a new policy will need to be agreed and there's no indication of what that will look like.
The NFU Scotland document, "Beyond Brexit: A Policy Framework for Scottish Agriculture", puts forward eleven suggestions for a new scheme.
It calls for support to only be available for "active farmers" rather than people who own historic subsidy rights but no longer farm the land.
The document also calls for "immediate full support" to be made available for new farmers who often struggle to break into the industry.
NFU Scotland President, Allan Bowie, said: "It sounds like a lot of money but it's about 12 days worth of the National Health Service.
"For that you get food to your shelf, to your plate, of a certain quality, a certain welfare and we look after the environment."
It's not just farmers who have an interest in the future of the subsidy system. Some of the payments are for schemes that benefit our ecosystems.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust is in the middle of producing a policy document which will argue that the environment needs to be at the centre of a future subsidy system.
Senior Policy Officer Bruce Wilson said: "We now understand that land produces so much more than just commodities. It also produces a whole range of environmental goods and services.
"Flood protection is a very topical one at the moment but there's carbon sequestration, biodiversity value, tourism and recreation. A whole host of things.
"We want to see a move towards rewarding farmers for the whole range of services they produce and not just the commodities."
The Scottish Secretary David Mundell will address the conference when it debates the Brexit issues.
He will tell delegate that farmers "can look forward to a future full of opportunity".


The US rock band Pearl Jam have cancelled a concert in North Carolina in protest against the state's new law on LGBT rights.

The new law, brought in last month, invalidated several local anti-discrimination measures that protected gay and transgender people.
Other acts, including Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr, have also scrapped their shows in protest.
In a statement, Pearl Jam said they "must take a stand against prejudice".
The law "is a despicable piece of legislation that encourages discrimination against an entire group of American citizens," the statement on the band's website said.
"The practical implications are expansive and its negative impact upon basic human rights is profound."
Mapping safe toilets for transgender Americans
Why bathrooms matter to trans rights
The concert had been due to go ahead at the 20,000-capacity PNC Arena in Raleigh on Wednesday.
On Monday, another US band, Boston, also cancelled three shows scheduled for late April in North Carolina.
The law, known as HB2, requires people to use public toilets that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Its implementation has drawn ire from anti-discrimination campaigners, as well as companies including PayPal, Apple and Facebook.
North Carolina governor Pat McCrory is now seeking to roll back some of the measures included in the bill he signed, to protect LGBT rights, but not those relating to public toilets in schools and government buildings.
Last week, the singer Cyndi Lauper said she would not cancel her concert, and would instead turn it into "an entire day to build public support" to repeal the law.
She will be donating all profits from the show on 4 June to Equality North Carolina's efforts to have the law reversed.


The Chancellor, George Osborne, has outlined the government's plans to "balance the books" by 2016.

Mr Osborne said the government planned to cut the structural budget deficit to zero in the next six years.
The structural deficit represents the hole in the public finances that is not expected to be repaired by economic recovery.
The chancellor also said he expected the UK's total debt levels to have started falling by 2016.
But he added that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was forecasting that the government would meet these targets a year early, by 2015.
The OBR, headed by economist Sir Alan Budd, was set up to provide an independent assessment of the state of the UK's public finances and the UK economy.
Total borrowing is expected to fall to 2.1% of GDP by 2015, the OBR said, and reach 1.1% by 2016.
Current borrowing stands at Â£155bn - 11% of GDP.
The UK's total debt, which currently stands at more than 62% of GDP, is forecast to peak at 70% of GDP in 2013-14, before falling to 67% by 2015-16.
Announcing the plan, Mr Osborne said the Budget "deals decisively with this country's record debts".
Although confirming that the government's target for deficit reduction was achievable, the OBR warned that the economy would suffer as a result.
It is now forecasting that the UK economy will grow by 1.2% this year and 2.3% in 2011, lower than the previous government's forecasts.
Unemployment is forecast to rise to a peak rate of 8.1% this year, while inflation is also expected to peak at 2.7% by the end of the year before falling back towards the 2% target.
Mr Osborne said investors' fears over sovereign debt were now "the greatest risk" to the economy, and denied that he was choosing between cutting the deficit and securing economic recovery, calling it a "false choice".
Labour has argued that cutting the deficit too quickly could risk pushing the UK back into recession.
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But worries over the high public debts in Greece and Spain have caused widespread concern in financial markets in recent weeks, with investors questioning the sustainability of Europe's public finances.
"I do not want these questions ever asked of the UK," the chancellor said.
The secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Angel Gurria, welcomed the Budget, calling it "far-reaching" and "courageous".
"It provides the necessary degree of fiscal consolidation over the coming years to restore public finances to a sustainable path, while still supporting the recovery," he said.
Fitch Ratings, one of the three major rating agencies, also welcomed the Budget, saying it a "represented a material strengthening of the commitment to fiscal consolidation and the long-run sustainability of UK public finances".
But other economists were less impressed, warning that the forecasts for economic growth were too optimistic given the drastic cuts outlined by the chancellor.
"The boost to growth in later years from lower borrowing does not look unreasonable, but the short-term effects are staggeringly small," warned Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club.
"In particular, the OBR appears to have assumed that consumers will react to having lower incomes by simply saving less, rather than making any significant adjustments to their spending, an assumption which looks highly questionable."


A new rocket that will be the first ever to take tourists up into space, has been unveiled in California, USA.

20 February 2016 Last updated at 14:14 GMT
The rocket, called 'Unity', is the latest version of the Virgin Galactic Spaceship.
It will carry six passengers, and is designed to travel nearly 100 kilometres up into space.
700 people have already signed up for a trip, even though it's not yet been announced when the first flight will take place.


WTA singles rankings as of 30 January 2017

1. Serena Williams (US)
2. Angelique Kerber (Ger)
3. Karolina Pliskova (Cze)
4. Simona Halep (Rom)
5. Dominika Cibulkova (Svk)
6. Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol)
7. Garbine Muguruza (Spa)
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus)
9. Madison Keys (US)
10. Johanna Konta (GB)
11. Venus Williams (US)
12. Petra Kvitova (Cze)
13. Elina Svitolina (Ukr)
14. Carla Suarez Navarro (Spa)
15. Timea Bacsinszky (Swi)
16. Elena Vesnina (Rus)
17. Barbora Strycova (Cze)
18. Caroline Wozniacki (Den)
19. Victoria Azarenka (Blr)
20. Coco Vandeweghe (US)
Other Britons in top 300:
73. Heather Watson
98. Naomi Broady
158. Tara Moore
212. Laura Robson
286. Amanda Carreras
287. Katy Dunne


Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has promised to reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax for people earning more than £150,000 if Labour wins the next election.

The previous Labour government increased the top rate from 40p to 50p in 2010, but the current government cut that to 45p with effect from April last year.
So what is the 50p tax rate, and why is it such a central issue for politicians in the run-up to the next election?
What is the 50p tax rate?
Anyone receiving a "taxable" income - such as salaries, pensions and interest on savings - in the UK is subject to income tax.
After a "personal allowance" of £9,440 (due to rise to £10,000 from April) people pay according to "bands" of income.
At present income of up to £32,010 is taxed at the "basic rate" of 20%, while a "higher rate" applies to income from £32,011 to £150,000.
Under Labour's plan, half of all income above £150,000 would go to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), instead of 45% as at present.
Why does Ed Balls want to bring it back?
The shadow chancellor said the coalition government had given the "richest people in the country a huge tax cut" by scrapping the 50p top rate - something he said "cannot be right".
Making his pledge to restore the 50p rate, Mr Balls said "those with the broadest shoulders" should bear a "fairer share of the burden".
Labour tried to block the abolition of the 50p rate in 2012 but were defeated in the House of Commons.
How much would it raise?
Labour has not put a figure on this.
A 2012 HMRC assessment - which the Office for Budget Responsibility called "reasonable" - estimated that cutting the top rate from 50p to 45p would cost £100m a year.
But Mr Balls said the three years where the tax was imposed (after increasing the top rate from 40p to 50p) raised almost £10bn more than the assessment suggested.
Labour said the impact of returning the rate to 50p would be bigger than £100m because tax liabilities for people earning more than £150,000 in the period during which the assessment was carried out were higher than previously thought.
What do the coalition parties say?
Conservative Treasury minister David Gauke said the 50p rate would "raise little, if anything", a conclusion he said was backed up by the HMRC assessment.
Scrapping the 50p top rate in his 2012 budget, Chancellor George Osborne said it "damages our economy and raises next to nothing".
The previous year Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had said the 50p rate should not be cut while many people were "struggling to make ends meet".
But in the same year Business Secretary Vince Cable had said the party would consider scrapping the 50p rate if there was a "good alternative", such as a "tax on very high-value property".
At the Lib Dem conference in September, activists voted by 224 to 220 against making the return of the 50p rate a party policy.
What do supporters of the 50p top tax rate say?
The Unite union said pledging to restore the 50p rate showed Labour "understands the need for a fairer taxation system".
"Voters will know now that Labour is emerging as a positive choice for this country," it added.
Richard Murphy, director of think tank Tax Research UK, said the 50p tax rate "worked" but was undermined by the short time it remained in place.
He said the UK was "seeing a massive increase in inequality" and the 50p rate would help "balance up" the economy.
What do critics say?
The 2012 HMRC assessment said the high tax rate made the UK a "less attractive place to start, finance and grow a business".
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said bringing back the 50p rate would be an "unmitigated disaster for Britain".
Mark Littlewood, director general at the Institute of Economic Affairs, echoed that view, saying it would be a "disaster for both enterprise and economic growth".
And Labour peer Lord Sugar, businessman and star of TV show the Apprentice, has said reducing the tax was a "clever move".
How has the top rate of tax changed over the years?
On coming to power in 1979, Margaret Thatcher's government reduced the top rate of income tax from 83% to 60%.
This was reduced again in 1988 to 40%, and the "higher rate" has remained at the same level ever since.
But in April 2010 Labour's "additional rate" came into force, meaning anyone earning more than £150,000 a year had to pay 50p in every pound of income over that amount.
The current coalition government kept the additional rate system, but reduced the amount to 45p from last April.


The Ireland women's team for Friday's Grand Slam decider against England at Donnybrook shows one change from that which defeated Wales 12-7 last weekend.

Scrum-half Larissa Muldoon moves from the replacements to the starting XV.
"There's a very strong spirit in this squad that's been developing nicely over the last few months," said Ireland head coach Tom Tierney.
"While the performances haven't been as accurate or as clinical as we would like, we've ground out four wins."
"That has set up a very big game this Friday evening," he added.
Ireland's relative continuity in selection is highlighted by the fact that props Lindsay Peat and Ailis Egan join Leah Lyons in the front row for the fifth successive game.
In the back row, flankers Ciara Griffin and Claire Molloy pack down with number eight and captain Paula Fitzpatrick for the sixth game in a row.
Second row Marie-Louise Reilly is set to win her 50th cap.
England will arrive in Dublin on the back of a huge win against Scotland and in the hope of pipping Ireland to the championship.
"From our point of view, we have a huge opportunity on St. Patrick's Day and for us it's about looking to rectify some of the areas of our game that we haven't been happy with over the past few weeks," said Tierney.
"If we can make those small changes, then Friday evening's game should be a great one."
Ireland women: K Flood (Leinster); H Tyrrell (Leinster), J Murphy (Leinster), S Naoupu (Aylesford Bulls), A Miller (Connacht); N Stapleton (Leinster), L Muldoon (Railway Union); L Peat (Leinster), L Lyons (Munster), A Egan (Leinster), S Spence (Leinster), M-L Reilly (Leinster), C Griffin (Munster), C Molloy (Connacht), P Fitzpatrick (capt) (Leinster).
Replacements: C O'Connor (Connacht), I Van Staden (Ulster), R O'Reilly (Connacht), C Cooney (Leinster), N Fryday (Connacht), M Healy (Connacht), N Caughey (Ulster), M Coyne (Connacht).


The European Central Bank has announced it will embark on a massive programme of quantitative easing worth more than â‚¬1tn and aimed at stimulating the Eurozone economy.

Media playback is unsupported on your device
22 January 2015 Last updated at 14:57 GMT
But what does quantitative easing mean? And why is this taking place now? BBC News explains - in 70 seconds.
Video produced by Mohamed Madi and Tom Donkin.


Three 15-year-old boys have been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of a man whose body was found on moorland.

The boys appeared at Rotherham Youth Court on Thursday accused of murdering 34-year-old Craig Nelson, South Yorkshire Police said.
The body of Mr Nelson, also known as Craig Peston, was found off the A628 at the Woodhead Tunnels on August 22.
A post-mortem examination found that he died as a result of head injuries.
The three boys, who cannot be named, will appear before Sheffield Crown Court at a later date.
Mohammed Shiraz Bashir, 41, and Leonie Marie Mason, 23, both of Holme Park Court, Huddersfield, were charged in August and have been remanded in custody pending further court appearances.


A driver who admitted causing the deaths of two cousins by careless driving in a hit-and-run crash on New Year's Eve has been jailed.

Gabor Hegedus, 38, was driving 40mph in a 30mph zone moments before he ploughed into Zaneta Krokova, 11, and Helina Kotlarova, 12.
The pair were holding hands as they crossed the road in Oldham.
Hegedus was sentenced to four years at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.
The 38-year-old - who has a string of convictions in his native Hungary including robbery, motoring and dishonesty offences - braked and swerved but hit the girls at "no less" than 29mph, the court heard.
He was disqualified from driving for six years.
The girls, originally from the Czech Republic, had just come out of a shop near their homes on Ashton Road when the crash happened on 31 December.
Helina died at the scene after being thrown into the opposite carriageway and hit by another vehicle.
Zaneta was thrown more than 65ft (20m) by the impact and died in hospital on 2 January.
Some family members left the court as CCTV of the crash was shown.
After the sentencing, Zaneta's father, Milan Kroka, said his family was still struggling to come to terms with the "devastating tragedy".
He added: "The incident continues to have a huge impact on mine and the rest of the family's lives, and ultimately, today's sentencing will not undo what's happened.
"Zaneta was so young and full of life, it is still hard to believe at times she is no longer with us."
Robert Kotlar, Helena's father, said he and his wife Sylva had been handed a "life sentence" as they have to "live every day without our beloved daughter because of what the driver did".
Their pain would not diminish as a result of the sentencing, he added.
The court heard that, after CCTV analysis, Hegedus was charged with careless rather than dangerous driving.
His sight of the girls had been partially obscured by them crossing the road behind a van and he had only half a second to react, the court heard.
Nicola Gatto, mitigating, said Hegedus was "truly sorry".
At an earlier hearing, Hegedus also admitted failing to stop, disposing of the vehicle, failing to report an accident and driving without a licence.
Another man, David Orsos, 19, was sentenced to 20 months in a young offenders institute after pleading guilty to a single charge of perverting the course of justice.
Zoltan Peto, 49, was jailed for two years and one month for the same charge.
Janos Kalayanos, 50, was sentenced to 21 months for two counts of perverting the course of justice.
All four men have been recommended for deportation.


Authorities in Moscow have begun a big campaign to demolish street kiosks and convenience stores, sparking an outraged reaction among some residents.

Some 100 stores were to be torn down, reports said, amid claims operators had no legal title to the land.
But critics counter that the demolition, which began on Monday night and targeted dozens of stores, is itself on shaky legal ground.
Some store operators are petitioning the mayor to stop the demolitions.
The premises targeted, say observers, are often to be found outside metro stations and range from small kiosks to shopping centres with up to three floors.
As well as convenience foods, they offer services including hairdressing, photo booths, payment for mobile phones and local taxes.
The demolition campaign is believed to be part of a drive by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, to clean up Moscow's image.
Supporters claim the convenience kiosks were irregularly constructed during the construction boom of the 1990s, obstructed pedestrians and impeded access to important underground services such as gas and telecommunications.
But reaction to the demolitions on social media has been largely negative.
Some argued that due process was not followed correctly, making the demolitions themselves illegal, while others complained they left Moscow residents lacking vital goods and services.
Others said it was foolish to target small business owners in the middle of a recession, amid claims the demolitions could mean up to 15,000 people are out of a job.
Store operators protested they were not given sufficient notice of the demolitions, with many unable to clear out their property before the bulldozing began after dark. Some may be preparing legal action.
It is not clear what will happen to the land vacated in the demolitions.
Russian Orthodox archpriest Dimitry Smirnov said the land could be used to build new churches, adding: "Patriarch Alexy once said, 'The more churches we have, the fewer prisons.'"


A solo kayaker has completed his trip around all of Scotland's lifeboat stations to raise money for charity.

Nick Ray set off on the 2,015-mile trip in May and took more than four months to finish the challenge.
The 51-year-old started at Kippford on the Solway Firth and travelled clockwise before finishing in Eyemouth in the Borders.
He visited 47 lifeboat stations on the journey and hoped to raise thousands of pounds for the RNLI.
Mr Ray, who lives in a yacht in a marina at the Isle of Kerrara, near Oban, said his trip had been inspired by Brian Wilson's account of his solo sea kayak journey around Scotland in the 1980s.
He tweeted that it had been a "privilege" to raise funds for the RNLI with the trip and thanked everyone for their "words of congratulations".


The most popular music among residents of Scotland's cities includes German house tech and R&B rap, according to the results of a BBC project.

The BBC looked into the music people search for on their phones.
Data was provided by Shazam, a company that helps its 100 million users to identify any song they hear by playing an excerpt into their phone.
Tech house group Format: B was most searched for in Aberdeen and R&B rap collective WSTRN in Glasgow.
Tropical house DJ Sigala was top choice in Inverness, Dundee and Edinburgh.
The BBC has used the data to discover musical "twin towns" - far-flung places with similar tastes in music.
Inverness and Aberdeen's "twin" was Queenstown in New Zealand, Dundee matched up with Dunedin also in New Zealand, and Glasgow and Edinburgh's listening choices were similar to Melbourne in Australia.


Celtic maintained their four-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership with victory over Motherwell.

After a strong start from the hosts, they went ahead through Scott Sinclair's strike.
Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney fired against the goal frame as Celtic's dominance continued.
Craig Samson made some fine saves for Motherwell but then fouled Dembele and could not keep out the Frenchman's penalty.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Home manager Brendan Rodgers knows he has a frontline that can strike fear into most domestic defences and, despite it not quite clicking as efficiently as it has been recently, his two most potent predators still managed to find the net.
Sinclair's opener had been coming despite Motherwell containing the champions well in the opening 15 minutes.
He latched on to a James Forrest cross from the right-hand side after Dembele had a fresh-air swing, was quick to pounce and his left foot shot gave Craig Sampson no chance.
Dembele's own goal contribution may have come from the spot late in the match, but once again his pace and movement meant a torrid afternoon for Motherwell's back four.
The visitors could have crumbled after the opening goal - better teams have in the east end of Glasgow recently - but they remained organised and composed throughout the match.
Well manager Mark McGhee had set up to frustrate Celtic in the middle of the park and decided to allow the home side possession in the wide areas.
It was a bold move and, in terms of keeping the score line respectable, it worked.
The Fir Park side also had their goalkeeper to thank for the relatively narrow defeat.
Sampson pulled off three top-class saves - the pick of the lot perhaps a low dive to claw away a deflected Scott Brown effort midway through the second half.
It's a rare thing in Scotland to see a left-back receive a standing ovation for an effort on goal, but Kieran Tierney is a rare talent.
In the second half, he jinked and danced his way past three Motherwell defenders inside the box, but his close-range effort smashed agonisingly against the crossbar.
Celtic Park rose as one to salute the skill and the effort - the 19-year-old now a firm fans favourite - and it's easy to see why with every passing performance.
It's progress of a kind for Motherwell, who left Celtic Park in August with a 5-0 thumping - and a similar scoreline never looked likely this time around.
Celtic played within themselves, though, and they'll have to find their extra gear if they're to record another memorable result in the Champions League when Borussia Monchengladbach come calling on Wednesday night.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: "I said to the players before the game for us to succeed it's not just about us being hungry for the success, it's about being starving.
"You have to really, really push yourself in moments when you think things are gone and you have to fight.
"That (Dembele winning the penalty) was a perfect example of the spirit in the team in that they will chase everything.
"That looked like it was dead and was going to go through to the keeper but he made it something. The best strikers do that and create something out of nothing or make something for themselves.
"He made the penalty through his endeavour. Forget about his quality, that's about a mind-set to get there and he tucked it away really well."
Motherwell manager Mark McGhee: "I thought Ross MacLean was terrific. David Ferguson is a great athlete.
"He is quick but still has 10 or 12 pounds to put on before he is going to be the full specimen and Jack McMillan the same. So we have a lot of work to do with these boys.
"But it shows you the raw material coming through from Scott Leitch's academy.
"Stephen Craigan is working with them at Under-20 level and we are top of that league, winning games and we are getting them in our team.
"That is the important thing. That is what Motherwell have to do, we have to breed young players that are going to fill the boots of those who are stepping on."
Match ends, Celtic 2, Motherwell 0.
Second Half ends, Celtic 2, Motherwell 0.
Goal!  Celtic 2, Motherwell 0. Moussa Dembele (Celtic) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
Penalty Celtic. Moussa Dembele draws a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty conceded by Craig Samson (Motherwell) after a foul in the penalty area.
Substitution, Celtic. Kolo Touré replaces James Forrest.
Attempt missed. Louis Moult (Motherwell) header from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the left following a set piece situation.
Foul by Erik Sviatchenko (Celtic).
Ryan Bowman (Motherwell) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Liam Henderson (Celtic).
Jake Hastie (Motherwell) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Moussa Dembele (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Substitution, Motherwell. Jake Hastie replaces Ross MacLean.
Louis Moult (Motherwell) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Liam Henderson (Celtic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Louis Moult (Motherwell).
Attempt missed. Ryan Bowman (Motherwell) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is close, but misses to the right.
Corner,  Celtic. Conceded by Richard Tait.
Corner,  Celtic. Conceded by Craig Samson.
Attempt saved. Scott Sinclair (Celtic) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the top right corner.
Attempt missed. Patrick Roberts (Celtic) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Scott Brown (Celtic) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Attempt blocked. Scott Brown (Celtic) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Foul by Moussa Dembele (Celtic).
Craig Clay (Motherwell) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt blocked. Scott Sinclair (Celtic) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Foul by Scott Brown (Celtic).
Richard Tait (Motherwell) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. James Forrest (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Attempt missed. Ross MacLean (Motherwell) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Attempt saved. Louis Moult (Motherwell) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Substitution, Celtic. Patrick Roberts replaces Stuart Armstrong.
Substitution, Celtic. Leigh Griffiths replaces Cristian Gamboa.
Substitution, Motherwell. David Ferguson replaces Jack McMillan because of an injury.
Delay in match Jack McMillan (Motherwell) because of an injury.
Attempt saved. Louis Moult (Motherwell) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Foul by Cristian Gamboa (Celtic).
Ryan Bowman (Motherwell) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Scott Sinclair (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Corner,  Celtic. Conceded by Richard Tait.


Scotland cannot reach the medal matches at the World Men's Curling Championship in Canada.

David Murdoch's rink won four and lost five of their first nine games and still have matches against Germany and Russia to complete.
However, after results on Thursday, the Scots cannot catch any of the top four sides - Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
The host nation lead the standings on 10 wins.
Sweden and Switzerland have eight victories and the United States have seven wins.


A woman has been cleared of murdering her seven-year-old niece at a house in Nottingham but found guilty of cruelty towards the girl.

Shanay Walker died from a brain injury at the property in Bestwood, in July.
A jury at Nottingham Crown Court cleared Kay-Ann Morris, 24 of killing Shanay, but convicted her of cruelty.
Morris's mother Juanila Smikle, 53, of Easegill Court, Top Valley, was also found guilty of cruelty towards the girl.
Smikle was found guilty of cruelty to three other children, but cleared of another charge of cruelty towards a fifth child.
Morris was cleared of a cruelty charge towards another child.
Both are due to be sentenced on Friday.
During the trial the jury heard Shanay came into Morris's care after her mother Leann Walker suffered depression following the birth of another child.
Morris was later granted guardianship in 2011.
Ms Walker said during visits Shanay showed signs of bruising and "seemed distant", the court heard.
She told the jury she received a phone message on the morning of Shanay's death from Morris saying: "I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough."
A post-mortem report showed Shanay had more than 50 injuries on her body and had died of a brain injury.
The prosecution alleged Morris subjected her niece to a "sustained, vicious and brutal beating".
Morris elected not to give evidence at the trial but had previously told police officers Shanay had accidently fallen down the stairs.


Israel has dismissed Egyptian claims that a series of shark attacks in the Red Sea could have been the result of a plot carried out by its foreign intelligence agency, Mossad.

The reports - apparently quoting the South Sinai governor - have been picked up by the Israeli media.
An elderly woman was killed by a shark in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday.
Several other swimmers have been mauled in the past week.
Conspiracy theories are always popular in the Middle East, with unlikely suggestions often made that troubles in Arab countries could be caused by Mossad agents.
Rumours had circulated in Egypt that there could be an Israeli connection to this unusual spate of Red Sea shark attacks.
However, it was comments attributed to the South Sinai governor, Mohamed Abdul Fadil Shousha, carried on an official Egyptian news site that drew attention.
"What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm," he is reported to have said.
The Jerusalem Post picked up on the story - quoting Israeli officials who rejected the notion as "ludicrous".
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Igal Palmor then told the BBC: "The man must have seen Jaws one time too many, and confuses fact and fiction."
It has also been pointed out that visitors to Israel as well as Egypt might be alarmed by the shark attacks.
Israel has its own holiday resorts on the Red Sea coast, and Sharm el-Sheikh is popular with its citizens.


A convicted murderer who spent two decades in prison for a crime he denies committing has failed in his bid to clear his name.

Kevin Lane, 47, was jailed for shooting dead car dealer Robert Magill in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire in 1994.
Lane always said he was innocent and claimed a corrupt detective meant his conviction was unsafe. He took his case to the Court of Appeal last month.
But a judge said his arguments were "speculative" and rejected his appeal.
Lane's barrister told the court the detective who dealt with the case, Det Supt Chris Spackman, was "spectacularly corrupt".
He was jailed in 2003 for plotting to steal Â£160,000 from Hertfordshire Police, the Court of Appeal heard.
Lawyers argued his "reckless dishonesty" meant Lane's conviction for murder was "manifestly unsafe".
Lady Justice Rafferty told the hearing: "The arguments are generalised criticism of Spackman's corrupt and dishonest behaviour.....which was adverse to Kevin Lane.
"We are not persuaded that the safety of the conviction is in doubt and this application is rejected."


Mike 'Herbie' Blash is to step down from his role as deputy race director at the end of the season, bringing to a close a 50-year career in Formula 1.

Blash, 67, has worked for governing body the FIA in his role since 1996. Before that he was involved in the Brabham team and Yamaha's F1 programme.
Blash will be replaced by FIA safety director Laurent Mekies, who will split the role with his existing one.
He will work with Blash and F1 director Charlie Whiting for the rest of 2016.
Frenchman Mekies has previously worked for the Arrows, Minardi and Toro Rosso teams.
FIA president Jean Todt paid tribute to Blash, describing him as "instrumental in the seamless running of grand prix races for more than two decades".
Blash started working in F1 in 1965, with the privateer Lotus entrant Rob Walker. He joined the factory Lotus team in 1968, as race engineer to Jochen Rindt, who became F1's only posthumous world champion in 1970.
Blash moved to Brabham as team manager in 1972, beginning a long association with F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and where Whiting was chief mechanic.
After Ecclestone sold Brabham, Blash became its sporting director in the early 1990s, a role he also occupied with Yamaha, which supplied engines to the team and subsequently to Jordan and Tyrrell, before joining the FIA in 1996.


The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle apparently wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church before he died expressing fears he was morally responsible for the people it killed.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died last month aged 94, wrote a long emotional letter to Patriarch Kirill in May 2012, church officials say.
He said he was suffering "spiritual pain" over the many deaths it caused.
Kalashnikov had previously refused to accept responsibility for those killed.
By Steve RosenbergBBC News, Moscow
The letter published by Izvestia provides a fascinating insight into the mind of the man who created Russia's most famous weapon.
Mikhail Kalashnikov spent his career designing and perfecting assault rifles. More than 100 million Kalashnikovs have been sold worldwide. The gun brought Kalashnikov fame and a string of awards.
But his letter to the Patriarch suggests that, towards the end of his life, Kalashnikov felt a degree of guilt - or "spiritual pain" as he puts it - for having invented a killing machine.
It's unclear, though, how much of this he wrote himself. Izvestia quotes Kalashnikov's daughter, Elena, as saying she believes a priest helped her father compose the letter.
But in a letter, published in Russia's pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, he wrote: "My spiritual pain is unbearable.
"I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I... a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?" he asked.
"The longer I live," he continued, "the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression".
The letter is typed on Kalashnikov's personal writing paper, and is signed with a wavering hand by the man who describes himself as "a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov".
The Kalashnikov, or AK-47, is one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons.
Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.
It is thought that more than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles have been sold worldwide.
Kalashnikov refused to accept responsibility for the many people killed by his weapon, blaming the policies of other countries that acquired it.
However, pride in his invention was tempered with sadness at its use by criminals and child soldiers.
"It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon," Kalashnikov said in 2008.
In his letter to Patriarch Kirill, Kalashnikov said that he first went into a church at the age of 91 and was later baptised.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says it is unclear how much of it he wrote himself. Izvestia quotes Kalashnikov's daughter, Elena, as saying she believes a priest helped her father compose the letter.
The press secretary for the Russian Patriarch, Cyril Alexander Volkov, told the paper the religious leader had received Kalashnikov's letter and had written a reply.
"The Church has a very definite position: when weapons serve to protect the Fatherland, the Church supports both its creators and the soldiers who use it," Mr Volkov was quoted as saying.
"He designed this rifle to defend his country, not so terrorists could use it in Saudi Arabia."
Kalashnikov received many Russian state honours, including the Order of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labour, but made little money from his gun.
He died on 23 December after being admitted to hospital a month earlier with internal bleeding.


Protests have been held in a south Indian university over the death of a PhD student.

Rohith Vemula killed himself on Sunday inside the campus of Hyderabad Central University.
He was one of five Dalit, formerly known as untouchables, students who were protesting at their expulsion from the university's housing facility.
Mr Vemula's friends have blamed the university's top official and a federal minister for his suicide.
The police in Hyderabad said they were investigating the role of some university officials as well as federal minister Bandaru Dattatreya in Mr Vemula's death.
Some students also protested in Delhi, demanding action against Mr Dattatreya and clashing with police.
Mr Vemula and the four other students faced allegations last year that they attacked a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) - the student wing of the governing Hindu nationalist BJP.
They all denied the charge.
The university cleared them in an initial inquiry, but reversed its decision in December, broadcaster NDTV reports.
Protesters allege that the students were expelled after the minister, Mr Dattatreya, a BJP member, wrote a letter to the federal Ministry of Human Resource and Development, to complain about the scuffle.
The five Dalit students were subsequently barred from using the university's housing and other facilities, reports say, prompting their supporters to say they had been subject to a "social boycott".
Protesters believe Mr Dattatreya was upset because the students were known for campaigning against the policies of the BJP student wing.
But the minister said the letter he wrote was not about the Dalit students.
"Some anti-social elements were disrupting the peaceful atmosphere within the university, I wrote to the ministry seeking action against that," Mr Dattatreya told reporters.
"This suicide does not have any link with BJP. The inquiry report will bring out the truth," he said.


A body has been found in the River Taff in Cardiff, South Wales Police have said.

The discovery was made by canoeists close to Radyr Weir, Radyr, on Saturday shortly after 11:00 BST.
Officers spent about three hours at the scene as part of their investigation.
No further details have been released by police.


UK new car sales hit an all-time record last year, the latest trade industry figures show.

Some 2.63 million new vehicles were registered in 2015, up about 6% on 2014 and the fourth consecutive year of growth, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.
Stronger consumer confidence, special deals and cheap finance drove sales.
Registrations in December are thought to have been the best December figures on record.
It is thought that some 180,000 new cars were registered last month,
The previous record for sales in Britain was set in 2003 when 2.58 million new cars were sold.
Car registrations in the UK, Europe's second-biggest auto market after Germany, fell sharply after the 2007-8 financial crisis but have gradually recovered, returning in 2014 to pre-crisis levels at 2.48 million.
Consumers have benefited from low interest rates and the strengthening of sterling against the euro which has made it cheaper to import cars from countries such as Germany and France.
The expected new record high for registrations comes despite declines in sales for Volkswagen, which accounts for around 20% of British car sales. Sales of some of its brands fell sharply in October and November following the diesel emissions scandal.
Despite this VW saw full-year sales rise 4% across all its brands last year.
A big factor fuelling sales is the availability and cost of finance on forecourts. The SMMT says that 80% of cars are bought with some form of finance and around 60% are purchased using PCP's.
These Personal Contract Purchase plans mean customers can buy a new car for an affordable monthly payment in the same way that you might purchase a new mobile phone.
As PCP's work on a 3 yr buying cycle, that keeps demand for new cars strong.
Before the downturn car sales averaged around 2.3m a year. The industry doesn't know what the new norm for sales will be. But the Chairman of Ford of Britain has told the BBC that overall car sales could hit 2.8m this year.
However, sales of its Skoda brand ended the year down 1% and Seat finished 11% lower after a nearly 50% drop in sales in December.
The best selling car, for the seventh year running, was the Ford Fiesta.
More than 85% of Ford's showroom sales are on finance plans known as PCPs - where customers in effect lease a car - and which are widely credited with having boosted vehicle sales across the industry in recent years.


About 250 planned onshore wind farms are likely to be cancelled because of an early end to subsidies, the government has said.

New onshore wind farms will be excluded from a subsidy scheme from 1 April 2016, a year earlier than expected.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said this was likely to mean 2,500 planned turbines would not be built.
She told MPs the change "draws the line in the right place" and said consumer bills would not rise as a result.
The funding for the subsidy comes from the Renewables Obligation, which is funded by levies added to household fuel bills.
Energy companies had been facing an end to this subsidy - as pledged in the Conservative Party election manifesto - in 2017.
In an oral statement following last week's announcement, Ms Rudd said onshore wind was an "important" part of the mix, but that "we are reaching the limits of what is affordable and what the public is prepared to accept".
5,061
onshore turbines in the UK
18,000  gigawatt hours of electrcity generated by onshore turbines in 2014
5.5 million homes could run for a year on that power
5.6% of the UK total electricity needs
She said the government's decarbonisation targets would still be met, adding: "Clean energy doesn't begin and end with onshore wind."
A grace period would allow projects that had had the required consent by 18 June to continue, she said, adding that the target of generating 10% of electricity from wind by 2020 was being reached early.
The announcement had been discussed with the devolved governments of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, she said.
After the announcement to end subsidies was made, Scotland's Business, Energy and Tourism Minister, Fergus Ewing, said he had warned the UK government that the decision could be the subject of a judicial review.
Labour's shadow energy secretary, Caroline Flint, said the early end of subsidies was bad for jobs, investment and the environment.
She added: "This debate is not about hot air, it is about jobs, manufacturing and investment opportunities at risk across the sector."


Olympic medallist Anna Chicherova has vowed to clear her name after learning she is one of 14 Russian athletes to have failed a doping retest.

The high jumper won bronze in 2008 but that result is now in doubt after 454 samples from those Games were retested.
"It's the most complete shock," said Chicherova, who went on to win gold at the 2012 Games in London.
"I can't explain how it could have happened. I was always sure what supplements and medicines I was using."
Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee said up to 31 athletes from around the world could be banned from the Rio Olympics as a result of the retests, which were conducted using the latest scientific methods.
The Russian Olympic Committee subsequently revealed that 14 of those 31 athletes were Russian.
A Russian TV report then claimed those 14 athletes included 10 medallists, among them 33-year-old Chicherova, who is planning to defend her Olympic title at the Rio Games, which begin on 5 August.
Sports minister Vitaly Mutko admitted the news did not "look good" but said the results were "not an objective picture" of Russia's doping situation.
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Russia's athletes are already banned from international competition following allegations of state-organised doping.
But in an interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan, Mutko said he expected the ban to be lifted for Rio because it would be "useless" for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to continue punishing them.
He also held the IAAF partly responsible for Russia's predicament, claiming it helped cover up the positive tests.
"The priority for them [IAAF] must be the development of track and field worldwide and you cannot achieve that with punishment," he said.
"It damages hugely the reputation and image of track and field. It would decrease the popularity of the sport in Russia. Kids would not want to do it."


TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo beat Tunisia's Stade Gabesien 1-0 with a dramatic late goal in the first leg of their African Confederation Cup play-off in Lubumbashi on Sunday.

Striker Jonathan Bolingi scored from a corner in the 94th minute to give Mazembe a narrow advantage over their Tunisian opponents.
Bolingi is one of Mazembe's few Congolese starters in a line-up which includes Ghanaians, Ivorians, Malians, Tanzanians and Zambians.
TP Mazembe won the African Champions League for a fifth time last year, but their title defence lasted only two rounds before being eliminated by Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.
Defeat meant demotion to the second-tier Confederation Cup with seven other Champions League last-16 losers and if Mazembe defeat Gabesien over two legs they will go into the tournament's group phase.
Competing in a Caf competition for the first time, Stade reached the play-offs through an unbeaten six-match run, but none of their players are Tunisian national team first choices.
On Saturday, a dramatic rally brought Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa a 3-1 home victory over Medeama of Ghana.
Eric Kwakwa scored in the first minute for the visitors and they held that advantage in Pretoria until 10 minutes from time.
Colombian Leonardo Castro and Zimbabweans Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila then scored within seven minutes to give the newly crowned South African champions success.
"I have never seen my team play so badly as they did during the first 45 minutes tonight," said Sundowns coach and former South Africa striker Pitso Mosimane.
"They did silly and unprofessional things that were not learnt from me. I barely recognised them as Sundowns footballers.
"But we eventually woke up and scored three goals for the third consecutive match in all competitions. It could have been more as the woodwork denied us twice.
"I wanted a clean sheet at home, but I am confident that we can score in Ghana provided we play properly," said Mosimane ahead of the return match on 18 May in Sekondi.
Sweden-born Medeama coach Tom Strand said tiredness cost his team dearly.
"We ran out of steam in the last 10 minutes and gave Sundowns a lot of space, which they used to good effect. Having watched replays, I felt their third goal was offside," said Strand.
Kwakwa struck with a hard shot from outside the box for Medeama, whose previous play-offs appearance two seasons ago ended in a penalty shootout loss to AC Leopards of Congo Brazzaville.
Castro levelled with a near-post header off a corner and Billiat scored through a cross that dipped behind goalkeeper Muntari Tagoe and landed in the net.
Malajila, used mainly off the bench during the successful domestic league campaign, completed the amazing comeback with a low shot from close range.
Young Africans of Tanzania also left it late to establish a 2-0 lead over Sagrada Esperanca of Angola at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Simon Msuva broke the deadlock on 71 minutes and Matheo Anthony scored a potentially crucial second goal a minute into stoppage time.
'Yanga' are hoping to become the first Tanzanian club to win a Confederation Cup play-off and qualify for the group stage.
Ramadan Ajab pounced on a clearance to score after 33 minutes in Omdurman and give Al Merrikh of Sudan a 1-0 win over Kawkab Marrakech of Morocco.
The matches between Stade Malien of Mali and FUS Rabat of Morocco, and Mouloudia Bejaia of Algeria and Esperance of Tunisia all ended goalless.
On Friday, it was also 0-0 between Al Ahly Tripoli of Libya and Misr Elmaqasah of Egypt, while  Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia began their title defence with a 2-0 home win over Mounana of Gabon.
The second leg matches will be played between 17-18 May.


A service that digitally weaves together the DNA of prospective parents to check for potential disease in thousands of "virtual babies" is set to launch in the US by December.

New York start-up Genepeeks will initially focus on donor sperm, simulating before pregnancy how the genetic sequence of a female client might combine with those of different males.
Donors that more often produce "digital children" with a higher risk of inherited disorders will be filtered out, leaving those who are better genetic matches.
Everything happens in a computer, but experts have raised ethical questions.
"We are just in the business right now of giving prospective mothers, who are using donor sperm to conceive, a filtered catalogue of donors based on their own underlying genetic profile," Genepeeks co-founder Anne Morriss told BBC News.
"We are filtering out the donor matches with an elevated risk of rare recessive paediatric conditions."
Ms Morriss, an entrepreneur, gave a presentation on the company at the Consumer Genetics Conference in Boston last week.
She was motivated in part by her own experience of starting a family. Her son was conceived with a sperm donor who happened to share with Morriss the gene for an inherited disorder called MCADD.
MCADD (medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency) prevents those affected from converting fats to sugar. It can be fatal if it is not diagnosed early. Luckily, in Ms Morriss's case, the condition was picked up in newborn screening tests.
"My son has a pretty normal life," Ms Morriss said, "but about 30% of children with rare genetic diseases don't make it past the age of five."
Genepeeks has formalised a partnership with a sperm bank - the Manhattan Cryobank - and has a patent pending on the DNA screening technology.
The start-up benefits from the rapid pace of change in genetic technology.
Indeed, six months ago, Genepeeks' founders decided it was able to use a superior system for DNA analysis (called "targeted exon sequencing") than the one originally envisaged - a result, says Anne Morriss, of falling costs and increased flexibility.
For couples planning babies, other companies already screen one or both partners for genes that could cause disease if combined with a similar variant - so-called "carrier screening".
One academic who studies the use of genetic technology commented: "This is like that, but ramped up 100,000 times."
Ms Morriss's business partner, Prof Lee Silver, a geneticist and expert on bioethics at Princeton University, New Jersey, told BBC News: "We get the DNA sequence from two prospective parents. We simulate the process of reproduction, forming virtual sperm and virtual eggs. We put them together to form a hypothetical child genome.
"Then we can look at that hypothetical genome and - with all the tools of modern genetics - determine the risk that the genome will result in a child with disease. We're looking directly for disease and not carrier status. For each pair of people that we're going to analyse, we make 10,000 hypothetical children."
The process will be run for the client and each potential donor one by one, scanning for some 600 known single-gene recessive conditions. In this way, the highest-risk pairings can be filtered out.
Anne Morriss added: "At this stage our clients won't be receiving any genetic information back. We're very much focused on the practical utility of helping prospective parents who want to protect their future kids, giving them the option of additional analysis to what is currently being offered in the industry."
But the company's founders have plans to expand the screening beyond single-gene recessive disorders to more complex conditions in which multiple genes play a part.
Indeed, going to the trouble of simulating thousands of digital children deliberately lays the ground for this: "[It's] impossible to get towards an accurate risk calculation in any other way," said Anne Morriss.
And in a video produced by the company, Prof Silver says: "My hope for the future is that any people who want to have a baby can use this technology to greatly reduce the risk of disease being expressed in their child."
To some, such a prospect might appear like a step towards designer babies - until now the preserve of science fiction literature and films such as Gattaca, which envisaged a future of genetic "haves" and "have-nots".
Bio-ethicists approached by the BBC said Genepeeks was a logical outcome of the increasing demand for more information when making reproductive decisions.
However, some raised potential concerns about risk communication and the expansion of screening beyond rare single-gene disorders. But they suggested there were few, if any, regulatory barriers.
One ethicist told BBC News: "The biggest question for me, just from the outset, is the understanding of uncertainty. Even people who have been doing genomics for years still have a hard time figuring out exactly what a risk for a particular genetic predisposition really means for a family.
"Gene-environment interactions can lead to people either having disease or not having disease."
Dr Ewan Birney, associate director of the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK, echoed the point: "It's good that they're focusing on the carrier status of these rare Mendelian disorders where it's potentially more clear-cut. That said, these things are more complex than they first seem," he said.
"I'm sure the scientists appreciate that complexity. But when transmitting that complexity to everyday people, these things can sound more absolute than they really are."
He added: "The thing I would want to stress here is just how complex this is. It's great that people are thinking of using this technology in lots of different ways, but our knowledge gap is very large."
Risk communication to clients was, said Anne Morriss, "absolutely critical to anyone in this industry".
"We have to be crystal clear about what we're testing for, what risks we're helping to reduce; that there's no guarantee you won't give birth to a sick child," she said.
Prof Mildred Cho, associate director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics in California, raised questions over whether the sperm donor should also receive information about their genome gleaned from the screening process.
"Unlike hair colour, occupation or family history - those are things, presumably, the donor already knows - the thing that's different about this that I see is it could create information that the donor doesn't already have. It also has implications for the donor's other biological family members," Prof Cho told BBC News.
This week it also emerged that California-based consumer genetics company 23andMe had submitted the patent on a DNA analysis tool for planning a child.
Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter


The BBC is seeking a future star of African journalism for the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award, now in its second year.

The winner will work with teams across BBC News in London for three months.
Last year's winner, Nancy Kacungira, said: "I felt supported as a journalist from the continent, to tell the story I wanted to tell in the way that I felt it should be told."
Applications close on 23 March 2016 at 23:59 GMT.
The award was established to honour Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.
Ms Kacungira, a television anchor for Kenya's KTN television channel, was selected from nearly 200 applicants.
"It felt really good to be able to tell a story from Africa on such a big platform - my stories were seen and heard on BBC TV, radio and online," she said of her experience.
"My own values on reporting about the continent - nuance, balance, and authenticity - were a good match for the BBC's commitment to getting the story right from wherever they report from in the world."
The BBC's World Service Group and deputy director of News and Current Affairs Fran Unsworth said: "Komla was a much-loved and respected journalist - not only with his colleagues but also with aspiring journalists and audiences across the world.
"His storytelling was compelling and his enthusiasm was infectious, making him one of Africa's leading journalists.
"At the BBC, we are committed to continuing Komla's dedication to this continent by launching this award for the second year running. We are searching for a rising star who displays exceptional talent, someone who embodies the spirit of Komla."
Komla Dumor was an exceptional Ghanaian broadcaster who in his short life made an extraordinary impact - in Ghana, in Africa and around the world.
He represented a confident, savvy and entrepreneurial side of Africa.
Through his tenacious journalism and compelling storytelling, Komla worked tirelessly to bring a more nuanced African narrative to the world.
The BBC is committed to continuing Komla's legacy.
Eligible applicants for the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award have until 23:59 GMT on 23 March 2016 to submit an application.


A man has been jailed for trying to import an "obscene" child-like sex doll, in what police say is the first case of its kind in the UK.

Andrew Dobson, from Crewe, was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail and has been put on the sex offenders register for life.
Following the discovery of the doll - at East Midlands Airport - searches found indecent images on his computer.
The 49-year-old pleaded guilty to four counts at Chester Crown Court.
He admitted importing an indecent object, possessing indecent images of children and two counts of making indecent images of children.
More stories from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire here
Police said border forces identified a parcel labelled as a mannequin, which was found to contain an "obscene child-like doll,"
The package, addressed to Dobson of Merrivale Road, Wistaston, was ordered online and shipped from Hong Kong, police said.
Det Con Andy Kent said: "Knowing child sex dolls exist and are available for sex offenders to buy is sickening.
"For Dobson to go to great lengths to import one for his own sexual gratification shows the extent of his paraphilic interest in children."
Hazel Stewart, from the National Crime Agency Child Exploitation and Online Protection Specialist Operation Team, said: "Importation of the life-like dolls is a relatively new phenomenon and there is no offence of possession, only importing an obscene article.
"We know their purchase can indicate other offences against children."


The Welsh-made Raspberry Pi computer is being used to support education and IT development in Zambian schools.

Swansea-based GiaKonda is installing the credit card-sized computers, along with solar panels to power them, in schools in the Siavonga region in the south of the country.
It is using software which even illiterate children can understand.
It comes in the same week as the latest version of the Raspberry Pi went on sale for a record low price of just Â£4.
The Raspberry Pi will be used to help both schools and the local communities in Siavonga.
Chali Mangilazi, who works as an IT teacher at the local high school where the facilities are being developed, said: "Using the skills I have developed, along with the team here, I will be able to deliver a better quality of education and help develop practical IT skills for people in the region.
"One of the unexpected benefits has been that some of the local women in the area that sell at the market have been able to set up accounts to track their sales during IT classes, helping them set projections and improve their businesses."
Manufactured in Bridgend, the Raspberry Pi was designed by a not-for-profit foundation to bring inexpensive computers to underprivileged communities.
With roughly the processing power of a tablet, or a desktop computer from the early 2000s, it runs on a version of the Linux operating system which offers beginners an easy introduction to programming.
The original Raspberry Pi Model B has sold over five million units, making it the best selling computer in the UK, according to its makers.
Howard Kirkman, technical director at GiaKonda, said: "The Raspberry Pi is a great piece of kit.  It is easy to teach the basics of computer science and programming along with Office applications like word processing and spreadsheets."


Two men and a woman from Birmingham have been charged with terror offences as part of a UK probe launched after the Paris and Brussels attacks.

Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Zakaria Boufassil are both charged with funding terrorism on or before 7 July 2015.
Mr Ahmed and Soumaya Boufassil are separately charged with preparation of acts of terrorism between January 2015 and this month.
The three, from Small Heath, are due before magistrates in London on Friday.
West Midlands Police said they were among five people arrested in Birmingham on 14 April and at Gatwick Airport the next day.
A third man, Fazal Sajjad Younis Khan, 40, also from Small Heath, has been charged with possession of CS spray, police said.
He has been released on bail to appear before Birmingham magistrates on 13 May.
A 59-year-old man remains on bail while the investigation continues, police added.


The makers of SimCity have announced they are to release an offline version of the game.

The news comes after repeated problems with the launch of the most recent release of the city-building game, which required players to be online.
Requiring connection to the internet was seen as an attempt to curb piracy, but some users struggled to log in.
The new offline version will be available to all players as a free download once testing is completed.
SimCity had been a stand-alone game up until March 2013, when a new online-only version was released.
The launch was beset by problems, with many gamers reportedly waiting 30 minutes or more before they could start to construct a city.
Others said the game was sluggish once they were playing, that it was slow to respond to changes, and it often crashed.
Electronics Arts (EA), which owns SimCity creator Maxis, apologised for the problems and said a lot more people had logged on than it had expected.
It called the launch "dumb" and offered a free game to those who had been affected.
At the time of the reported problems, Lucy Bradshaw, head of Maxis, said an offline, single-player mode did not fit with its "vision" for the urban-planning game and that many people preferred the online multi-player version.
But in a blog post this weekend, Patrick Buechner, general manager of Maxis, said: "Let's get right to it. SimCity offline is coming! I've wanted to say those words for quite some time."
"When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection."
He also said that an offline version would allow users to make modifications to the game and its components without compromising the integrity of the online game.
"Modding is a big part of our studio's legacy and we're excited to see what you guys create," he said.
Graham Smith, writing on the gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun, said the announcement was good news.
"The offline mode is a real boon to the community. If you've got no internet connection or just a shaky one, this is the difference between being able to play the game and not," he said.
Mr Buechner said that Maxis was in the late stages of wrapping up development of the offline version and in a nod to the previous launch added that "while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it's as polished as possible before we release it".
The offline game will come as a free download with update 10 and will be available to all SimCity players.


The mother of a newborn girl found abandoned inside an amusement arcade's toilet block has been charged with attempted murder and child cruelty.

A search for the 29-year-old was launched after the baby was found at Silcock's Amusements in Southport, Merseyside, last Thursday.
Nurses at Ormskirk Hospital in Lancashire later named the girl April. Police said she is now "safe and well".
Her mother, from Prescot, is due before South Sefton Magistrates later.


A medieval tome which popularised the story of King Arthur is thought to have been written in a lost Oxford chapel.

Researchers now believe Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain was penned at St George's chapel, before it was demolished to make way for Oxford Castle.
Deeds from the time have revealed the Welsh scholar was serving canon there when writing the chronicle in 1136.
Professor Helen Fulton called it an "exciting" find.
Charters and deeds dating from 1129 to 1151 signed by Geoffrey and countersigned by the Archdeacon of Oxford have been analysed by experts.
The mythical figure of Arthur as a 5th Century military commander, leading the Britons into battle against the invading Saxons, has proved impossible for historians to verify.
The only contemporary source, The Ruin and Conquest of Britain by the British monk and historian Gildas (c.500-70), does not mention Arthur at all.
Some scholars have suggested Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Romano-British war hero described by the the 6th Century historian Gildas, may have been the real Arthur.
Others say Lucius Artorius Castus, a 2nd or 3rd Century Roman military commander, may have formed the basis of the Arthurian myth.
However, historians such as Michael Wood believe Arthur was an amalgam of heroic figures from Celtic mythology - a basis that has, nonetheless, barely dented his legacy.
The Scottish roots of Merlin the Welsh wizard
What's behind the legend of King Arthur?
The chapel was a teaching base for Oxford students, and Geoffrey indicates in the paperwork his profession as a "magister" - meaning teacher.
Prof Fulton, a professor of medieval literature at the University of York and an expert in Arthurian literature, called it a "new piece of the jigsaw in the quest to trace the origins of the Arthurian legends".
"He would have been based there when he wrote his famous Latin chronicle, Historia Regum Britanniae," she said.
"It was Geoffrey who introduced the figures of King Arthur and Merlin to a wide medieval readership and paved the way for the enormous popularity of the Arthurian legends in later centuries, right up to modern times."
According to Geoffrey, his work was based on a secret, lost Celtic manuscript to which only he had access.
It told of Guinevere, Merlin, the sword Caliburn - later known as Excalibur - and Arthur's final resting place in Avalon.
All that is left of the building where Geoffrey is thought to have written The History of the Kings of Britain is the Saxon stone-built St George's Tower and the ancient crypt.
"[He] would have walked the footprint of the crypt whilst penning his notable tome," a castle spokesman said.
Michael Speight, general manager of Oxford Castle Unlocked, said: "[It] has played a role in a number of key historical events in British history.
"We are so excited to have discovered that it is also the site where the legends of King Arthur were written."


Letting agents raided more than £1m from tenants' deposit schemes last year, a BBC investigation can reveal.

Fourteen letting agents were prosecuted in the UK in 2016 for helping themselves to tenants' cash.
Despite the Tenancy Deposit Scheme being introduced to protect tenants' money, deposits can still be held in a bank account controlled by the landlord or agent.
Property expert Ajay Jagota said this is the sector's "dirty little secret".
More on the rogue landlords and other news
Since 2007, landlords and their agents have had a legal requirement to put every tenant's deposit in a government-backed scheme, such as the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
But deposit money can either be held in a custodial account run by the scheme, or it can be held in a bank account, which the landlord or letting agent can access at any time.
Letting agency Premier Property Management of Truro, based in Cornwall, owes more than £35,000 to clients.
Hannah Sinfield, a former tenant, has been waiting five months for the £775 she is owed.
She has had to put the deposit for her new flat on a credit card and the interest is mounting up.
"I'm just fed up with it now really," she said. "I'm just sick of the lies."
The company, run by Ann Treneer from Newquay, even owes money to landlords.
Steve and Lorraine Emery-Wright are owed more than £4,200 after The Property Ombudsman ruled in their favour.
Mr Emery-Wright, who has been waiting 18 months for the money, said: "She would avoid us, she would tell us intentional lies: 'I've paid you', and no pay has gone in.
"She would send us cheques and the cheques would be cancelled."
BBC Inside Out South West has spoken to nine tenants and seven landlords who are collectively owed almost £35,000.
Three workmen are owed £1,300, and £35,000 awarded by the courts to clients has also not been paid.
In addition, an organisation which insures tenants deposits has so far paid out £36,000 to 36 people who all failed to get theirs back from Ms Treneer.
She has apologised and said the money is safe in a ring-fenced account. She said she has not been well and promised to pay the money back - but it has not yet been returned to her clients.
She is being investigated by Trading Standards.
Mr Jagota said: "An average small independent agent would probably be managing about 200 properties which would equate to £300,000 in tenancy deposits.
"We think this is the sector's dirty little secret where they can dip into this account when they see fit."
He said there is "no need" to take cash deposits and properties should be insured against careless tenants.
Fourteen letting agents were convicted of stealing £1,018,100 of deposits in 2016:
MP Oliver Colvile, who has campaigned for tenants' rights, said: "I think this is appalling and clearly there needs some action to be taken on all of this."
The full investigation will be on Inside Out South West on BBC One on Monday 13 February at 19:30 BST and on the iPlayer for 30 days thereafter.


Sporting Club Albion striker Leigh Dugmore does not mince her words when discussing the prospect of facing the Manchester City and England defender in the Women's FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday.
Dugmore, Albion's leading goalscorer with 18 in 19 games this season, has gone so far as to tweet Bronze exactly those words.
That message from the distribution warehouse worker from Birmingham, and the determination behind it, sums up just how the lowest-ranked side left in this season's Women's FA Cup are treating their tie against one of Britain's richest and most glamorous sides.
"The best thing we can do is be confident," said 25-year-old Dugmore, who was playing for Leafield Athletic in the fourth tier of English football last season, while Bronze was starring for England at the Women's World Cup in Canada.
"If we pull out all the stops, stick together and play at our best, then we have a chance. If they underestimate us, and they will, we can surprise them.
"I tweeted Lucy Bronze that I'm coming for her. She is a great player and this is a great chance for all of us to see if we can step up.
"It's the biggest game of most our lives - it will definitely be mine."
But has Bronze replied? "No," laughs Dugmore, sounding slightly disappointed.
Albion, an amateur side from the third tier who train three hours a week and whose management team are volunteers, are associated to men's Premier League side West Bromwich Albion through its foundation.
The FA Cup is famed for pitting the unheralded against the game's giants - the poor from the lower reaches of the football pyramid against the rich with an international tapestry of talent at their disposal.
But rarely will the divide be as stark as at the Academy Stadium on Sunday when Sporting Club Albion, whose players pay to play, face one of the few fully professional women's football teams in the country.
To say they are in a different league is an understatement. Their respective league competitions do not even start in the same year - Albion's campaign is already seven months old, while City's Women's Super League season started a week ago.
"It's an astronomical mountain in front of us," says Albion manager Graham Abercrombie. "We all watched the World Cup last year - the players will be rubbing shoulders with their heroes."
Five City players helped England claim bronze at the 2015 Women's World Cup - a third-placed finish that saw a spike in interest in the domestic game.
There was a major increase in WSL 1 attendances, with City boasting average home crowds of 1,500. Albion have also enjoyed a rise in interest, as Abercrombie estimates average attendances went from 20 to about 100 this season.
"We are all fighting the same cause, no matter the level," said Abercrombie.
"The game is fantastically growing, but at our level we are still paying to play, that is the bottom line. We have players in Sheffield who are doing 160-mile round trips to get to training.
"The commitment level of the group is second to none in the country when you talk about the financial and physical commitment of the players."
Abercrombie says both the staff and players at City are "heroes" in the English game as the club is playing a leading role in taking women's football into a new era.
Players now earning as much as £65,000 a year have been in a similar position as Albion's players, forking out subs and paying for fuel to get to training and games.
Albion are the only side from outside the WSL to beat a team from the top two divisions in this season's competition, ousting newly promoted WSL 2 side Sheffield FC in the fourth round.
Dugmore admits few could have expected them to reach the quarter-finals and that it has already been an "unbelievable" run.
"We have proven people wrong by beating Coventry, Sheffield and Brighton to get here," she said.
Abercrombie, who works as a school games organiser for the Youth Sports Trust - while also moonlighting as a graffiti artist, among other things - insists his side will not be overcome by the occasion.
"We appreciate who we are up against, absolutely," he said. "But we are not daunted, we are not going to get there and freeze. We are going there to try our absolute best.
"We are all excited, but the challenge has also really focused the players. There is an ambitious bunch here and they are hungry."
Six other sides are also trying to reach the semi-finals this weekend, with a place in a Wembley final now just two wins away.
Arsenal host Notts County in a repeat of last year's WSL League Cup final, while Sunderland host Reading in another all-WSL 1 tie.
But holders Chelsea, like City, face lower-league opposition in WSL 2 outfit Aston Villa.
Villa edged past Everton 1-0 in round five to earn a trip to face the 2015 double winners at Wheatsheaf Park.
"We know we can't underestimate Aston Villa. Obviously we've got to defend our title," Chelsea defender Hannah Blundell told BBC Sport.
"Anything can happen in the cup and we have got to concentrate and stick to our strengths.
"Our behind-the-scenes staff have been doing their research and tipping us off about certain things.
"Last year's final was an amazing experience and Wembley is a massive occasion. We want to experience it again this year."
Villa have started 2016 with one win and one defeat from their first two league games.


Doctors have revealed how they are going to repair a missing area of the skull of Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai.

Surgeons at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been giving details about two procedures due to be carried out on the 15-year-old.
Malala was discharged from the hospital earlier this month after being shot in the head by the Taliban in October.
The hospital said the surgery would take place in the next 10 days.
The first procedure will involve drilling into her skull and inserting a custom-made metal plate.
Doctors said Malala had been left completely deaf in her left ear when she was shot at point-blank range.
The shockwave destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing.
The second procedure will involve fitting a small electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.
Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at the QEHB, said: "Her recovery is remarkable and it's a testament to her strength and desire to get better.
"There is no doubt that the surgery she underwent in Pakistan was life saving.
"Had that surgery not been of such a high standard she would have died."
He added each procedure should take about 90 minutes and her full recovery could take another 15 to 18 months.
Dr Rosser said the missing part of Malala's skull had been put in her abdomen by surgeons in Pakistan, in order to "keep the bone alive".
Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of that bone, which they say may have shrunk.
Dr Rosser added this was common practice worldwide to keep the bone healthy.
He said: "Malala currently has no skull, she only has skin covering the brain."
Malala has asked to keep the bone once it has been removed, said Dr Rosser.
The QEHB is home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine where members of the armed service who have been injured overseas are treated.
Dr Rosser said the hospital was "unique" because all the treatment Malala required could be done within the same organisation.
Stefan Edmondson, principal maxillofacial prosthetist, at the QEHB said: "What we're doing here could be done elsewhere but because we're such a large super-regional unit with a large neurological unit we see a lot more advanced cranial defects.
"We're fortunate in that aspect to see a lot more complicated cases and [it means] we have the software here."
Malala came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban's 2009 edict to close girls' schools.
Her love for education, and her courage in standing up to the Taliban, earned her a national peace award in 2011.
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Pakistan government has given Malala's father, Ziaududdin Yousafzai, a job in Birmingham as the education attache at the Consulate of Pakistan for at least three years.


League Two side Morecambe have signed former Shrewsbury midfielder Darren McKnight on a short-term deal until the end of the season.

The Northern Ireland Under-21 international will wear the number 28 shirt and was on the bench for Saturday's trip to Leyton Orient.
McKnight, 20, started out as a trainee at Barnsley without making any first team appearances.
He joined Shrewsbury last summer, but was released in January.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will make a three-day state visit to Germany this summer, Buckingham Palace has announced.

They will travel to the European country in June after an invitation from German President Joachim Gauck.
This will be the Queen's seventh time in Germany - her first was in 1965 and the last in 2004. In 2000, she opened the new British embassy in Berlin.
She has been on four previous state visits and two official visits.
Buckingham Palace said in a short statement: "The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will make a state visit to the Federal Republic of Germany from 24 to 26 June.
"Her Majesty and His Royal Highness are visiting at the invitation of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck."
Mr Gauck and his partner, Daniela Schadt, were guests of the Queen and Prince Philip at a lunch at Buckingham Palace in November 2012.
Mr Gauck, a human-rights campaigner and former East German dissident, became president in March 2012.