Sylvia Prescott was sexually abused as a teenager by her father, Oliver Garside, but hid the abuse for almost 30 years.
Sylvia, 47, felt she couldn’t go to the police while her grandmother was alive as she feared the news would cause her too much upset. However after her death in 2012, Sylvia bravely stood up to him.
Garside, 68, was finally jailed for eight years last May and now Sylvia hopes her story will encourage other women to come forward.
“I was terrified that I wouldn't be believed,” Sylvia, from Sunderland, explained. The abuse happened such a long time ago and it took all the strength I had to go to the police, but in the end I'm so glad I did.
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“The prosecution were able to build a strong case against my dad and he pleaded guilty to the abuse meaning I didn't have to go through the trauma of a trial.
“It was during the sentencing that the judge said my dad's excuse for the abuse was that he couldn't afford a prostitute. I was sickened.”
The mum of three’s ordeal began with non-sexual violence around the age of 11.
She added: “The first time he abused me I knew I had to go along with it, but I never imagined how much worse it would get.”
At the sentencing, the judge at Newcastle Crown Court said: “You told the author of the pre-sentence report you would rather have paid a prostitute but you did not have the money to do so. Your behaviour has cast a shadow over her life to date.
“Even today she has to live with what happened so long ago.”
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