Man jailed after fathering two children by daughter
Abuse began when one girl was eight years old
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A 72-year-old man was convicted yesterday of sexually abusing his three daughters for nearly 20 years, fathering two children with one of them. The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his children, repeatedly raped two of the girls in Dundee and Fife between 1976 and 1993, beginning when one was just eight years old.
One daughter, whom he threatened to shoot, gave birth to their first child when she was 17 and a second when she was 23. The man was also found guilty of repeatedly using lewd and libidinous behaviour towards another.
The man was convicted after a week-long trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. A ban on reporting the proceedings was lifted yesterday.
The verdict came as a woman raped by her father in a separate case in Greater Manchester waived her right to anonymity to tell how she had been "betrayed by the one person I should have trusted the most" and to encourage other victims to go to the police.
In the Edinburgh case, the defendant, who later moved to the north-east of England, was brought to justice after his now-adult victims contacted police. His wife, 62, was also accused of abusing the girls but the prosecution accepted her not-guilty pleas.
The court heard the man targeted the daughter who bore him two children from 1979, when she was 13, and abused her until 1993. She gave birth to a girl in 1984 and a boy in 1990.
The jury returned a verdict of not proven over allegations that he had offered her money to have his child and had forced her to take sexual photographs of him.
He abused the other girl from when she was eight, in 1976, until she was 16.
The man is due to be sentenced at the High Court in Kilmarnock next month. At the hearing yesterday, the defence advocate Jonathan Crowe said the man was expecting "a lengthy sentence" and wanted bail to sort out personal matters. Lady Clark refused the motion, saying: "You have been convicted of very serious offences."
In the case in Manchester, Anthony Allen was jailed for 11 years for raping his daughter, Candice Dinsdale. Her identity would normally be protected, but she waived her right to anonymity after the hearing in Minshull Street Crown Court in an attempt to persuade other victims to come forward.
Allen, 67, of Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, failed to turn up to court for sentencing and was later arrested by police.
He was taken to hospital after he faked a suicide attempt, claiming he had taken an overdose, to avoid attending the hearing. He had earlier pleaded guilty to rape, indecent assault and gross indecency, abuse which started when his daughter was just six and lasted eight years.
Speaking after the hearing, Ms Dinsdale, now 44, said: "The abuse stopped a long time ago, but the ghosts of my childhood have haunted me all my life. Many years ago, I was betrayed by the one person I should have trusted the most. I kept putting off telling anybody about what had happened because I was afraid that nobody would believe me.
"I felt the only way I could really move on was to face up to this and ensure that the person who caused all of my pain would pay. That day has arrived today and now I can look forward to Christmas and to the future.
"Courage and strength from my mother helped me come to the police. I would hate to think that there are other victims out there who are trying to brush secrets like this under the carpet. I tried to do the same thing and I can tell you now that it doesn't work."
"Even though we are going back over 30 years, the police listened to what I had to say and fully investigated my claims."