I had no childhood, man raped by father tells court

A YOUNG man who was raped and abused by his father over a three-year period has spoken of the terror under which he lived.

“I never had a childhood,” he told the Central Criminal Court yesterday in an emotional victim impact statement. “The feeling of lying awake at night, afraid to go asleep, afraid to stay awake, waiting for him to come to my room and abuse me was terrifying. I had no choice but to let him do it.”

All his life the survivor of the systematic abuse said he lived in fear; in fear of his father’s threats “not to give information to social workers, threats when he came from the pub, threats not to tell teachers or anyone outside the house what was going on at home”.