‘I did not kill Melissa or rape my daughters’

A MAN who says he is a suspect in the disappearance of Melissa Mahon has claimed he is innocent.

The man, who is not related to Melissa, 15, also said he was innocent of raping his two daughters and was not a sex offender.

“I did not kill Melissa and I did not rape my daughters,” he said.

In a lengthy interview with local paper the Sligo Weekender, the man said he worked closely with the health authorities and the gardaí in getting the “vulnerable” teenager into care in the weeks before her disappearance in September 2006.

And he said he was horrified by a weekend report that he was on a sex offenders’ register in Britain.

The man said he felt let down by the authorities and was made a “scapegoat”. He added the teenager had stayed in his house from 9.30am to 10.30pm for a period with the blessing of the health authorities.

The man revealed he had been questioned for nine hours about the alleged rape of his daughters but was freed without charge by gardaí last October.

And he also said he had information that the daughter who made the complaint against him had been involved in an argument with Melissa Mahon before her disappearance.

The man showed the Sligo Weekender a series of texts that he said came from another daughter whom he is also alleged to have raped.

These texts were allegedly sent to other people and then to the man. They said he did not rape her. Both of his daughters are now in care.

“I did not murder Melissa and I am not a sex offender and I did not rape my two daughters... And if I murdered Melissa why would I tell one of my daughters as has been claimed. I have never been arrested, charged or questioned about sexual activities and am not on any register in the UK. The only register I am on is the witness protection programme register. And I certainly did not murder and dump this young girl’s body in a lake. It was her safety I was concerned for at all times. I was contacted by gardaí and social workers to see if I could help them find her when she ran away in June 2006. On one occasion they came to my door looking for help and within half a day I got in touch with her.”

But in the following months he claimed he had been harassed by gardaí.

He also spoke about the last time he saw Melissa Mahon alive.

“The last time I saw her was around September 11-12. I got a phone call from one of the care workers who asked if it would be okay if one of them came down with Melissa as she had a present for me. But Mel couldn’t wait and came herself and threw it over the back wall. She did not come in and the care workers came and took her away to a location in another county because she was out of control and keeping bad company.”

Then he spoke of how he got a phone call from a man in Co Leitrim in the early hours of September 14.

“Melissa came on the phone and begged me to take her home. I said I couldn’t pick her up because she is in the care of the authorities. She had turned up at his door all cut and bleeding. I said I would contact the authorities in Sligo and did so on September 14.”

The man said he had a text message from Melissa telling him: “I am with [named social worker] I will ring tomorrow. I am safe. Mel.”

“That was the last contact I had with Melissa and it was in the early hours of September 14. Two days later gardaí came to my house and told me that she had run away again. The gardaí told me that social workers brought her to Dunnes Stores and then back to a health authority building where she changed her clothes and ran off. The last sighting of her was on the Old Bundoran Road. Gardaí told me that a social worker on a bus saw her on the road. Why didn’t they make arrangements to follow her if they saw her?” he said.

But the man said he had been harassed by gardaí for weeks afterwards: “I told them she was not there and if she did come I would let them know as I did countless other times.”

Meanwhile, he revealed how he was arrested and questioned by gardaí in late October about alleged sexual abuse of his daughters.

“My younger daughter gave birth a day before. My older daughter told gardaí that I raped her in May 2006 in a certain house. There was supposed to be a friend of mine in the house while the act went on for 15 minutes. But I was actually living at a different address which my rent book proves. I didn’t move into the other house until September 2006, four months later. If you were raped you would at least know where it happened and how it happened and it would not have happened while a friend of mine was downstairs.”

The man said the only reason he was back in Ireland in the summer of 2005, after leaving Sligo 27 years ago, was because his family had suffered racist abuse after they moved on a witness protection programme from London to Scotland.

“I was shot by some drug dealers. I was shot three times in London. There is still a bullet inside me. I was involved with a football team and was a member of the local Labour party and an individual was dealing crack cocaine and then I moved to Scotland afterwards. We left Scotland and came here in 2005 but that was because of racist abuse; no other reason.”

The man said the accusations were doubly hurtful as he was very fond of Melissa.

“She told my kids first about the abuse. I became close to Melissa and these allegations are totally devastating. If my children had been abused back then why was there no complaints at that time. I was on my own with the children. Melissa was close to me and she used to call me Dad.”

He showed the Sligo Weekender a series of texts that he said came from his other younger daughter whom he allegedly impregnated.

The man said that he volunteered to give a DNA sample when he was questioned by gardaí in October 2007.

One of the alleged texts said that the older daughter had hit Melissa Mahon with a piece of wood over the head when they allegedly quarrelled at the end of September 2006.

Another text told her father that she did not tell him about this incident at the time because it was easier to tell someone else.

“You didn’t get me pregnant,” said another text.

Another text allegedly said that it was another individual who made her pregnant.

When asked about why his older daughter was so adamant in her claims, he said: “She is not well and had been taking drugs because she was keeping bad company. If I am this murdering paedophile who dumps people in lakes why would I have helped Melissa in the first place? Why would I have brought her back up the road every time she went missing? Why have I been making inquires ever since then? Surely it would have been in my interests to keep my mouth shut and not stirring up a hornet’s nest.”

The man said he had been on Lough Gill on a fishing trip with his daughters last year.

“I have a history but I am not a pervert and I did not rape my daughters. I made diaries available to the gardaí to help them. I have already been tried by the media. I hope with all my heart that she is found safe and sound. Somebody didn’t want her talking — I have had my kids for 14 years. I fought their cause in the Royal Courts of Justice in the UK for 10 years after I was shot at in London. I was investigated at the time. Scotland Yard cleared me and I got full custody of the children from 1994. If I was a sex offender why were my children not taken away from me in the UK. I think my older daughter made this allegation because the rape allegation was going nowhere. And some people are looking for a scapegoat. Well I am not taking the blame for it.

“The only thing I would have done with that young girl would be to send her back to care. I want my name cleared. I hope that Melissa is found alive and well. It is because I would like to see her again. It is because she did treat me like a dad,” he said.