A brave teenage girl today told of how her father raped her in a sickening attack when she visited him for the weekend. Twisted Robert Hawksworth, 54, plied daughter Emily, then 17, with wine at his Derbyshire home before putting her to bed and then climbing in with her.
The teenager had been sexually abused by Hawksworth since the age of 14, but had remained silent until the rape last year, when she reported the crime to the police.
The 18-year-old, whose parents divorced when she was seven, has now waived her right to anonymity to bravely speak out about her ordeal to help other teenagers in similar situations.
‘When I woke up in the morning I felt sick and I felt like something had happened,’ said Emily, who was a virgin until the horrifying attack. ‘I felt violated.
‘I stayed in bed all day and on the Sunday he kept asking me to go to town with him and make me take the Pill. ‘I refused to take it because I did not want to believe what had happened.’
I was blunt with him and I didn’t want the conversation to be brought up. ‘When I went home on the Sunday night, I wasn’t going to say anything to my mum but as soon as I walked in I burst into tears.
‘She knew something had happened so I told her. She was distraught and rang the police.’
On Wednesday Hawksworth, who denied rape and sexual assault, was caged for nine years after a trial at Derby Crown Court.
Emily said she had not initially reported what had happened because she felt scared. ‘I was young at the time,’ she said. ‘I did not know how to handle it.’ Hawksworth, from Findern, Derbyshire, denied raping his daughter when he was arrested, forcing her to give evidence at his trial.
Jailing him, Judge John Burgess told Hawksworth: ‘She was visiting you as she regularly did for the weekend. ‘During the course of that Friday evening you and she were drinking both wine and cider, alcohol you provided. ‘She became very drunk and was very sick. You tended to her and she was put to bed.
‘During the night you came into her room, removed her underwear and had full sex. ‘She was a virgin until that happened. This was a gross breach of trust and the violation of a vulnerable girl.’
Hawksworth split up with Emily’s mother in 2001 after he subjected her to an ‘extremely abusive’ relationship, the court heard. Today Emily’s mother Karen Atalay, 53, described her daughter’s ordeal as ‘terrible and heart-breaking’.
She said: ‘I felt quite guilty. I felt it was my fault. ‘My marriage to him [Robert] was extremely abusive but I was too frightened to tell anybody anything. ‘I’m relieved that at last we have some justice. ‘We have all found it very hard to lead a normal life. ‘I think we have got through the worst but we are just trying to come to terms with what has happened.
‘Emily, who burnt all photographs and gifts given to her by Hawksworth, is having her surname changed by deed poll in a bid to wipe away any trace of her father.
Source: Dailymail
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