'This man stole my daughter's childhood'

Real Time
People's stories in their own words

The online bookseller Amazon has been criticised for selling a book that describes paedophiles as "loving human beings". Here, the mother of a child victim tells of bringing just such a man to justice. She cannot be named to protect her daughter's identity.

Mother and daughter have turned to each other for comfort

Two years ago, my 19-year-old daughter told me that a family friend had abused her when she was little.

She had earlier told me that she was gay, and while I was watching Richard and Judy, I saw a piece on how a lot of gays come from abusive families. My ex-husband used to be quite abusive, so I got this idea in my head that that might have something to do with her being gay.

I asked her about it, and she said 'there's a reason but I don't want to go into it'. I kept probing until she told me that Uncle Rodney - he's not really her uncle, but a family friend - had sexually abused her between the ages of seven and 11.

I believed her straight off. What she said fell into place; there were things she wouldn't have come out with unless she'd experienced it.

BROUGHT TO JUSTICE Joseph Rodney Daniels, 58, of Meltham, Yorkshire, was jailed last March He was found guilty of a series of indecent assaults The judge ordered that he remain on the sex offenders' register for life

We spoke to the police, not because we wanted a prosecution but for advice, to get her the right sort of counselling. They started to gather evidence against him - and three other girls came forward with similar allegations.

The case went to court last March; apparently some of her evidence was so harrowing that three jurors were crying.

His defence was that it was a moment of temporary madness, that he had overstepped friendship duties with a practical demonstration. But that didn't stop him abusing her again. He eventually pleaded guilty to the most serious offences.

Trusted family friend

What bothers me is that I'd had no cause to wonder about his relationship with her at the time. I've gone over it with hindsight, and even now I can't see any signs that should have made me uncomfortable.

She was always a quiet child anyway. In one sense, she was an ideal victim because she could always keep a secret. The little one wouldn't, she would keep it only until she had an audience and then she'd drop you in it. She did suddenly develop this thing that she was never getting married, but at the time I just put it down to her age.

We've been bad-mouthed all over the village by his family - they say it's a miscarriage of justice

And this was a man who was very close to my two girls. He and his wife couldn't have children and I put their closeness down to that. They used to baby-sit during the day if I was working and my mum couldn't look after them. I don't know to this day if his wife knew. She certainly stood by him during the court case.

Three months before I found out what he'd done, he'd asked me how the girls were doing. I told him that one had a boyfriend, and the other a girlfriend. He said 'Oh, the poor love, something terrible must have happened to make her gay.' He kept going on about it, we couldn't talk about the weather, the TV, anything.

She laughed when I told her, but it actually played quite heavily on her mind - she felt he was laughing at her, and that was partly what brought this to a head.

Social outcast

When it came out that he'd been arrested, there wasn't the mob rule seen in some other places. Someone painted 'paedophile get out' on his fence, but mostly people just didn't want to talk to him. He'd walk into a pub and people would say hi, then drift quickly away.

A nationwide "name and shame" campaign brought ugly scenes

Despite the fact that he pleaded guilty, we've been bad-mouthed all over the village by his family - they say it's a miscarriage of justice. I'm very disappointed that they don't think we've been through enough without saying that we've lied.

How do I feel about this man now? Everything you'd expect. If I saw him on the street, I'd have no qualms about killing him. He stole my daughter's childhood from her.

But we're doing fairly well under the circumstances. We're a strong family unit, and we were together throughout the court case. It's a long road to go, mainly for my daughter, but she's back at work, she's bought herself a new car and she's making a damn good effort at improving things.