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A little girl kept locked away at home was raped at least 16 times by her father and was also sexually assaulted by her mother in Wales, United Kingdom.
The sexual abuse the girl experienced was detailed in a series of hearings held at Swansea Crown Court, as reported by Wales Online last Friday, Aug. 10. The names of her parents, as well as the exact location of their home, were not reported so as to protect the identity of the little girl. However, it was reported that her father is in his 50s while her mother is in her 20s.
Apparently, the husband and wife met each other in a pub in England when the woman was only 16 years old. Prosecutor Robin Rouch told the court that the family did not socialize with neighbors, the daughter was home-schooled, the garden gate was secured with a padlock and the curtains at the windows were closed.
Aside from keeping his daughter locked up at home, the husband also kept a tight leash on his wife. Rouch said that the man controlled his wife’s mental health medication and contact with doctors, severed her ties with her family, and banned her from shopping.
The prosecutor stated that the husband intentionally controlled their home “in order to systematically and regularly abuse” his daughter, the report said. Because of this, the victim was “conditioned to see the abuse as normal.” The sexual abuse experienced by the little girl was only revealed to the police when the husband and wife’s relationship ended.
When the police raided the family’s home, they found sex toys, pornographic magazines, newspaper cuttings about young girls, and home-schooling books which the couple used to teach their daughter, the report stated. They also found 76 indecent photos of the child being abused by her father and assaulted by her mother on the woman’s phone.
Moreover, police officers contacted the man’s children from his first marriage as part of their investigation, and his other daughter told the cops that he had sexually abused her as well over an 18-month period.
It was revealed in one of the hearings that the little girl’s mother is suffering from a mental disorder called “battered person syndrome,” a subcategory of post-traumatic disorder (PTSD). The court was told that her husband sexually groomed and exploited her after he recognized her vulnerabilities.
Judge Geraint Walters noted that the combination of the husband’s”psychopathic tendencies” and “devious, wicked and flawed personality” with that of the wife’s flawed personality and vulnerabilities was what made the sexual abuse of the little girl possible, the report stated.
“She is so damaged that it is hard to see how she will ever recover from it. Every day brings new challenges for her,” Walters said, pointing out the burden of the abuse the little girl could carry her entire life. “She will remain forever vulnerable to future abusive relationships. She will carry the serious psychological scars for the rest of her life.”
The little girl is now in long-term foster care.
Meanwhile, her father was given the sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years after pleading guilty to 16 counts of rape, sexual assault and causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity on both her daughters’ charges.
Her mother, on the other hand, was convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, cruelty by neglect and taking indecent photos after she pleaded not guilty due to duress. She was sentenced to ten years imprisonment with an extended license period of one year. She was also ordered to be kept under hospital arrest for psychiatric treatment. Kate Matriano/JB
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