Daughter raped by sick paedo father 'three or four times a week' while he forced her to wear wife's engagement ring

A court heard Carol Higgins was raped hundreds of times over the course of 12 months by Elliott Appleyard in the 1980s when she was aged between 14 and 15.

Prosecutors said Miss Higgins was made to pose sexually in her underwear and was once raped in a cabin while they were on board a Scandinavian cruise ship.

She was even forced to have a tattoo of his nickname on her shoulder, which she has since had removed, during a horrific campaign of abuse.

Leeds Crown Court heard how Appleyard, from Huddersfield, West Yorks, ruled over his family with force and threatened his wife with a machete for having a 'sex dream'.

Miss Higgins, 49, who the court heard was treated 'as a wife', first reported the abuse in 1985 when she was in her mid 20s.

But she was told proceeding any further would 'blacken her name' and that she would be considered to be the 'biggest slag going'.

She also spoke to officers about the offences in 2005, 2012 and 2015, with the latter eventually leading to Appleyard's successful prosecution.

'YOU TOOK MY CHILDHOOD AWAY'

As Appleyard, 71, was sentenced for five counts of rape and 10 of indecent assault, Miss Higgins waived her right to anonymity to share her story.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: "You took my childhood away from me, and treated me like a slave.

"For 35 years I have been made to suffer the loss of my father and my family.

"Part of me wishes that someone on the street had raped me instead, because at least then I would have had the love and support of my family.

I will never be able to break free from the chains that you bound me in

"I wanted to reach down inside my stomach and pull away the foulness that you planted inside me.

"I will never be able to break free from the chains that you bound me in."

Sitting in the public gallery of the courtroom, she waved at her abuser as he was taken down.

A jury took less than two hours to return unanimous verdicts against him yesterday.

Delivering the sentence, Judge Rodney Jameson QC told the sex offender, of Denby Dale, Huddersfield: "For a 12-month period you treated Carol Higgins as your wife.

"You used her for sex, and abused her physically, as you did your own wife.

"It is not surprising that she felt then, and feels now, suffering, embarrassment, shame and even guilt."

Speaking outside court, Miss Higgins said: "I feel that justice has been served and I couldn't be happier.

"I used to wake up every morning with a scary feeling in my tummy because I didn't have anybody to love me in the way that I wanted to be loved."

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