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.