Daughter terrified by rapist dad's release from prison (Birmingham, England, United Kingdom)

So much stuff going on here that you hardly know where to start.

1) Why was dad BERNARD LEE able to "coerce" his daughter into "staying alone" with him after he split with the girl's mother? Who allowed this "coercion"? Did the mother have any inklings of the abuse and try to stop it--only to be dismissed as a "liar" or "hysterical"? Did the courts play a role in this? If so, why isn't that role identified or clarified? What were this dad's actual custodial "rights" and who gave them to him?

2) The fact that dad's sexual abuse of the daughter was only acknowledged AFTER he was arrested for abusing an unrelated child is very typical, though this is not noted here. I have seen many cases where victims and protective family members were not believed--until irrefutable evidence surfaced regarding Daddy's abuse of OTHER children.

3) So after Daddy was sentenced to prison, why was he allowed to use "loopholes" to violate the break the "no-contact" order and further torment her through the mail? Who allowed these actions to continue with no additional consequences for Daddy? Why weren't the "loopholes" closed years ago? By allowing this to continue, weren't the authorities basically saying that this Daddy's "right" to further abuse his daughter took precedence over her right to safety?

4) And why all the lack of protection now that he's out of prison? Why can't this daughter get police protection or surveillance cameras outside her home? (This in a country that has surveillance cameras everywhere.) Why can't she even get an up-to-date photo of the daddy perp? Or this current address? But funny, he has full access to HER address.

Unfortunately, women and children continue to be treated as expendable chattel by the powers that be. Disgusting.

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2010/10/13/child-abuse-victim-calls-for-change-in-the-law-97319-27463083/2/

Child abuse victim calls for change in the law
Oct 13 2010 By Joe Sinclair

WITH her head on the desk, Amy Lee would fall fast asleep, safe in the knowledge that no one could hurt her at school.

But night after night the six-year-old girl stayed awake terrified, waiting for the sound of her father’s footsteps outside her bedroom door.

For eight years evil Bernard Lee, aged 46, abused his daughter.

Her yearly school reports at Stanville Primary and Cockshut Hill Secondary schools show the rapid decline from bright and cooperative child to withdrawn and disruptive teenager.

But no-one picked up on the reason why and Amy never told, frightened he would kill her.

Kicked out of school at 13, she never completed her GCSEs and turned to drink to block out the pain of her childhood.

Eventually the part-time labourer’s abuse of another child lifted the lid on his treatment of Amy.
Aged 14 she shakily relived the horrors of her robbed childhood via a video-link.

She told the jury how her father would coerce her into staying alone with him at his bedsit after he split from Amy’s mum.

“He would tell me that he’d left the gas on after drinking. I thought he would die if I didn’t go round to make sure he was alright. He made me feel guilty.

“I loved him. He could be lovely. That’s why no one could believe what he did.”

Thanks to Amy’s evidence, Lee was sentenced to nine years for rape.

But even in jail, he continued to torment his daughter, finding loopholes in the prison system to break the no-contact condition and send her letters decorated with flowers and horses, promising that he had “found God” and changed his ways.

Meanwhile, Amy was bullied by other children and teenagers who would hurl insults at her on the street.

At least while he was in prison, she felt safe from her father.

But three weeks ago, Lee was released from prison after serving seven years.

Terrified Amy is now scared he will come looking for her and claims she has not been given sufficient protection from West Midlands Police. The mum of one is especially worried for her three-year-old son.

“I asked for cameras to be put outside the house and they laughed at me,” she said. “They won’t even give me a photograph of what he looks like.

“I don’t know where he is and I don’t know what he looks like now. I haven’t seen him in seven years and apparently he’s put on a lot of weight.”

A police spokesman said they had put in place a range of measures to protect Amy and the public from Lee. But said they could not release his photograph or address as they also had a duty to protect him from retaliation.

“It’s not fair,” said Amy. “He knows where I live but I don’t know where he lives.”

Now Amy, aged 21, of Sheldon, is waiving her anonymity as a rape victim to call for the law to be changed so that victims of sexual abuse know where their abusers live when they are freed from jail.

“I didn’t have a childhood because of him,” she said.

“He ruined my life. I can’t sleep. I drink too much. I have no confidence.

“I’m speaking out because I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I have. It’s about time someone stood up to him and people like him,” she added. Amy is backed by the National Association for People Abused in Childhood who want all paedophiles tagged for life.

Chief executive officer Peter Saunders said: “It’s outrageous that he knows where she lives and yet she can have no knowledge as to his whereabouts. It’s a re-abuse.

“Yet again the law is protecting the perpetrator at the detriment of the victim.”

Parents can now check whether people with access to their children are child sex offenders thanks to the introduction of Sarah’s Law, named after Sarah Payne who was killed by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in July 2000.

But the law does not extend to letting victims know the addresses of their abusers, as it does in America. And so Amy’s nightmare continues.

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