I was held as a sex slave for years by 'Irish Fritzl' stepdad
Ordeal: Mum-of-six claims abuse
SHOCK ORDEAL: Woman claims she was abused from the age of 12 and had six children by her stepfather Pic posed by model
An Irishwoman has claimed that she was imprisoned by her stepfather in a farmhouse and bore him six children, in a Josef Fritzl-style abuse ordeal.
The woman claims she was just 11 when the abuse began and the first rape took place when she was 12 in a farmhouse owned by her stepfather.
She says when she told her alcoholic mother what was happening, she was called a liar.
The woman also claims the DPP was unwilling to prosecute when she finally reported the abuse because it could not be proved that the relationship was not consensual.
Prisoner
She said she was held prisoner in a house miles away from her family and gave birth to five children fathered by her abuser. She also had one miscarriage.
She first became pregnant at the age of 16. "I wanted someone to do something, but I didn't know how to make him stop."
A year later she got pregnant again but miscarried and when she was 18 and pregnant for the third time, she says her stepfather moved her out of the family home to another house.
She had three more children by her stepfather and fled to America in her 20s. She said she could not survive alone, turned to drink and drugs and then returned home where the raping continued.
In an interview with Newstalk's Sean Moncrieff, she said that despite trying to tell her story on a number of occasions she did not manage to convince anyone of her ordeal until she finally met her husband.
After six months of taking statements the DPP decided not to take the case any further. The reason given is that because she was over 18 when four of the children were born it was felt that it would be too hard to prove that she had not consented to the relationship.
Courts
Summing up her ordeal, the woman said: "16 years -- that's how long I have been doing this. My case still hasn't been heard in the courts. That man will never ever know what he did to me.
"I go out and I rob a car and if I get caught I'd be put behind bars but to take and destroy somebody's life to the level that was done, that's okay, that's what I hear my country say to me.
"I do have freedom today but certainly I had to pay a very big price for that freedom, it's been very painful."
csheehy@herald.ie
- Clodagh Sheehy
