"It's an outrage that I was not allowed to come and immediately defend my name and say I didn't do this," Kavanaugh says, gesturing angrily.

Senator Feinstein reminds him the hearings were set by the majority - Republicans.

"We hear from the witnesses, but the FBI isn't interviewing them and isn't giving us any facts."

"You're interviewing me," Kavanaugh says, interrupting her. "You're doing it Senator."

Kavanaugh is asked to describe his friend Mark Judge, who Ford says was present for the alleged assault. The judge says he was a "funny guy, great writer, popular".

He says that Judge suffered from an addiction for several years that nearly claimed his life.

Democrats want Judge to testify to the committee, but Republicans have resisted.

Judge was last spotted by a journalist earlier this week hiding out at a beach house in Delaware.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asks why Kavanaugh hasn't asked the FBI to investigate the allegations.

"Senator, I'll do whatever the Committee wants. I wanted a hearing the day after the allegation came up," he replies angrily.

"I wanted to be here that day. Instead, 10 days pass and all this nonsense comes out that I'm in gangs, on boats in Rhode Island...these things are printed and run breathlessly by cable news. I wanted a hearing the next day. My family's been destroyed by this, Senator. Destroyed."

Rachel Mitchell provides the same ground rule guidelines to Kavanaugh that she told to Ford.

She asks that if there are any questions that Kavanaugh doesn't understand, that he should clarify them or ask her to restate them.

Her first question regards "rubbing or grinding your genitals against somebody clothed or unclothed".

He denies it.

"I love teaching law," says Judge Kavanaugh, but adds: "I may never be able to teach again."

He also talks about his love of coaching his daughters' basketball teams and adds: "I may never be able to coach again."

Image source, Reuters

Kavanaugh finishes his prepared statement by saying: "Judge me by the standard you would want applied to your father, your husband, your brother, or your son."

"My family and I intend no ill will toward Dr Ford or her family," he reiterates.

"But I swear today under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge."

Image source, Getty Images

Kavanaugh says how he's always been a champion for women.

He noted that after he took the bench in 2006, a New York Times piece about the low numbers of female law clerks at the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts inspired him to take "notice and action".

"A majority of my 48 law clerks over the last years have been women."

In a letter to this committee, he says these clerks said the system was "more fair" because of him.

Kavanaugh also says he's sent the most female clerks to the Supreme Court of any judge.

"That is who I am," he says emphatically.

Kavanaugh says he received a text from a female friend from college, whom he says is "a self-described liberal and feminist", offering her support.

"Deep breaths. You're a good man, a good man, a good man," he said the message read.

"I doubt we are alone in looking back in high school and cringing at some things," says Kavanaugh.

"For one thing our yearbook was a disaster. I think some editors and students wanted the book to be some combination of Animal House, Caddyshack, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High", which he notes, "were all popular movies at the time."

Journalists have scrutinsed his yearbook for evidence of binge-drinking and womanising.

He also denied that a female student's name that appeared in the yearbook was used in a sexual context as some media reports have alleged.

The word "Renate" appears more than a dozen times in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, including Kavanaugh's entry, describing him as the "Renate Alumni".

It was reportedly a reference to Renate Schroeder, a former student at a nearby Catholic girls' school. Two of Kavanaugh's former classmates have said the references to her were part of the boys' claims of alleged sexual encounters.

Image source, Getty Images

Sniffling, Kavanaugh says: "As for sex, this is not a topic I ever thought would come up at a judicial committee hearing."

"I never had sexual intercourse or anything close to it during high school and for many years after that."

"I was probably a little outwardly shy about my inexperience."

"At the same time, I was also inwardly proud of it."

Conservative commentators seem to approve of Kavanaugh's statement so far.

Others, however, do not appear to share the same enthusiasm.

"I drank beer with my friends. Almost everyone did. Sometimes I had too many beers."

"I like beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out and I never sexually assaulted someone."

He says it will be an ugly time "if every American who drank beer in high school is presumed guilty of sexual assault".

Kavanaugh says some people may have noticed he didn't list church on his personal calendar.

"I also didn't list brushing my teeth," he says.

"For me going to church on Sundays was like brushing my teeth. Automatic."

He says: "Keep in mind, my calendars were also diaries of sort - just like my dad’s.

"I listed the precise people who had shown up for certain events.

"The calendars are obviously not dispositive on their own, but they are another piece of evidence in the mix for you to consider.

"Dr Ford's allegation is inconsistent with my record and my character from my youth to the present day."

Image source, Reuters

Kavanaugh grew emotional talking about how his father kept detailed calendars (he was "a very organised guy").

He has shared his high school calendar from the summer of 1982 , externalwith the Senate committee as supporting evidence that he did not attend a Maryland party during that time as Ford alleges.

The judge told senators that he was out of town during that time, as his calendar shows.

Image source, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

"Dr Ford's allegation stems from a party that is alleged to have occurred in 1982," says Kavanaugh.

"I was 17 years old," he says.

He says that most of the girls he spent time with in high school came from all-girls Catholic schools in the region, unlike the private school attended by Ford.

"She and I did not travel in the same social circles," he said.

"It is possible that we met at some point, at some events, although I do not recall that."

Image source, Getty Images

Still sounding angry, Kavanaugh reminds the senators he's been "thoroughly vetted by the White House, the FBI, and this committee".

"For the past 12 years leading up to my nomination for this job... I've served on what is often referred to as the second most important court in the country."

Kavanaugh says he's "been a good judge", emphatically.

"Thirty-one hours of hearings. Sixty-five senator meetings. Throughout my 53 years and seven months on this earth, no one ever accused me of any sexual misconduct.

"A lifetime - a lifetime of public service and high-profile public service at the highest levels of public service, and never a hint of anything of this kind.

"That's because nothing of this kind ever happened."

Image source, Getty Images

Several people are wondering about the identity of the man who earlier patted Ford's head as the hearing adjourned.

The man is Keith Koegler, a friend of Ford's family who wrote in a sworn affidavit to the justice committee that he has known Ford and her husband for over five years and has gone on holidays with them.

The document adds that he first met Ford's family when he coached their son's basketball team.

In the affidavit, Koegler said that Ford first told him of her allegation against Kavanaugh in 2016 when they were discussing Stanford University student rapist Brock Turner.

"Christine expressed anger at Mr Turner's lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, DC," Koegler wrote.

"In all of my dealings with Christine I have known her to be a serious and honourable person," Koegler wrote.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images