Dad raped daughters for 27 years - 19 pregnancies, 9 births, 7 children

[Liberal_in_LA]

Dad raped daughters for 27 years

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/25/court.rapes/index.html

(CNN) -- A British man was jailed Tuesday for raping two of his daughters and fathering nine children over 27 years, a case with echoes of Austria's Josef Fritzl.

The two daughters were made pregnant 19 times; there were nine births, five miscarriages and five terminations. Seven of the children are alive but suffer genetic deformities.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons banning the identification of his victims and the surviving children, pleaded guilty Tuesday at Sheffield Crown Court, northern England, and was sentenced to serve 25 life sentences to run concurrently.

The judge said the minimum term the 56-year-old rapist should serve in jail should be 19½ years.

South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent Simon Torr said, "The victims of these terrible crimes have asked me to state the following: 'His detention in prison brings us only the knowledge that he cannot physically touch us again. The suffering he has caused will continue for many years, and we must now concentrate our thoughts on finding the strength to rebuild our lives.' "

Speaking for the police, Torr added, "The main concern ... is for those who have been so badly affected: the victims who have suffered a terrible ordeal. We will continue to offer them our full support to try and help them get on with their lives.

"As far as the sentence goes, we are satisfied that this offender has received the strongest possible punishment for his heinous crimes. Now we need to ensure continuing support for those who have suffered as a result of his actions."

The daughters first told police about their ordeal in June, but the abuse dated to 1981.

It emerged that in 1998 one daughter rang Childline, a charity to help abused kids, and asked for assurances about being able to keep her children if she came forward. When Childline could not make that guarantee, the daughter did nothing more to raise her plight. Watch how the case came to light

[ogneopasno]

1. MINIMUM of 19 years? No.

What an outrage -- especially that one of the daughters tried to report it. What a nightmare.

[SoCalNative]

4. This must be more of those "family values"

the heteros espouse to keep gay people from getting married.

[qwlauren35]

21. No, it's not.

That's as stupid as people who think that all gays are pedophiles because of the priest issues.

Abuse is abuse.

[dysfunctional press]

19. he won't serve anywhere close to 19 years...

if inmate justice in british prisons is anything like it is in america- he won't be drawing air for too long once he gets into the general population.

[LostinVA]

2. 19 1/2 years?! He should never see the light of day again

[LisaL]

10. He is 56 now, so if he serves all his time, then he quite probably

won't get out.

[Cleita]

3. I don't understand the failure of the system to be able to help victims like

these. Surely neighbors or someone saw something or heard something enough to come forward.

[EFerrari]

7. Any bureaucracy first tries to defend itself and its liability.

So horrible.

[Edweird]

5. 25 concurrent life sentences equals 19 1/2 years? Dude, I knew the metric system sucked,

but I had no idea it was THAT bad.....

[geckosfeet]

6. but - was he born again, rightous and married to a woman ?

Incurious minds want to know.

[Berry Cool]

8. It is difficult to even comprehend

how things like this can happen.

[Stuart G]

9. No it isn't..................With 5 Billion People..on this earth,,right now..

anything can happen with little or no supervision of parents. Well anywhere in the world...

Think about the unreported incest right here in the U.S. Right in your city, town or suburb...Oh..you don't think so?
..sorry...

[Hekate]

11. He's 56. It's been going on since he was 29. Just how old WERE those girls when he started?

Good gods. How 'bout he gets sentenced to sing soprano for the rest of his life... :argh:

Hekate

[FloridaJudy]

12. Good God!

It sounds like a whole bunch of folks dropped the ball on this one: no one noticed the girls' injuries? No one questioned why their kids had so many rare genetic disorders? And the Childline people...words fail me. I've worked in the medical field for decades, and we're required to report suspected abuse. It can't be that different in the UK.

Yes, that father's a monster, and I hope he rots in prison forever - preferably in solitary confinement on bread and water. But it sounds like everyone failed those children.

[anigbrowl]

17. Childline is a phone service you can call anonymously

You can't very well report something if the caller doesn't give their identity. They might have been able to narrow it down to a payphone or so but pragmatically it's pretty limited. I do think it's evidence of a systemic failure of some kind.

[StreetKnowledge]

13. Holy Hell

27 years abusing your own daughters? This guy should have his dick removed, preferably with a rusty axe. People like this are probably why we've never had first contact - they probably see this sorta crap and say "What kinda savages are these people?!?!"

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. I know. It's just horrifying.

[old mark]

15. No one believes kids. The system gives rights to adults , especially

family members, when much of the time they are the folks the kids must escape from.
I worked in an adolescent program for several years, and one 17 year old went home on a bus for Christmas, them came back to the rehab to get away from his parents. We spent Christmas together watching TV and eating cookies and holiday crap.
One of the other kids had inherited a huge amount of money, and his relatives were waiting for him to OD on the drugs he was buying with it so they could divide the money themselves.

Kids get the worst of the system.

mark

[LeftishBrit]

16. This is truly horrible

Both because of the horrific abuse of the daughters, and the genetic damage to the children born from incest.

There have been several horrific cases of child abuse, and of terrible failure of the authorities to detect and deal with it, in the UK recently.

And why a man would be so deranged and evil as to THINK of repeatedly raping his own daughters!

[lib2DaBone]

18. Dobson/Robertson/Benny Hinn.....What is not surprising?

[Gwendolyn]

22. It happened in the UK, so he wasn't exposed to that nonsense.

Sociopathy of that kind is born of another place.

[LeftishBrit]

23. While people like Dobson and Robertson are utterly evil...

they can't really blamed for what some evil sick nut does in the UK. We don't have the same religious-right influence here. I have more links to American politics and culture than most British citizens and I hadn't even heard of Benny Hinn, till I looked him up in response to your post. So I doubt that this man has had any exposure to these nuts. We have our own problems, like incompetent social services. But not that one.

[undeterred]

25. Thanks for clarifying that

rape and incest were not invented by the religious right- in England or anywhere else. Its a common refrain here at DU to pin everything on them.

[Blarch]

20. His mother must be proud.

:puke:

[AngryAmish]

24. Way to go, Bush!

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Are you trying to satirise DUers or something?

[Dorian Gray]

28. Okay...

that's two ridiculous "way to go Bush!" responses this morning. Ahem.

[Dorian Gray]

27. Those poor poor girls

I hope he goes to jail for the rest of his life. So sad. They really have lived a warped life. And their poor children. So sad.