Woman Raped By Father At The Age Of 11 Gets Justice After 45 Years


Karen Lockhart was only 11 when her father took her virginity. Terrified of what he might do to her mother, she was left with no choice but to keep her ordeal a secret for decades. Finally, after 45 years, Lockhart, who’s now 57, received the justice she deserves.

Albert Starkie started to molest Lockhart when she was seven. As reported by the Mirror, the victim endured an array of assaults for four years, including forcing her to perform sexual acts on him while in the cinema. While Lockhart’s parents were separated, it didn’t stop Starkie from abusing his daughter.

According to Lockhart, her father told her that if she told anyone about the abuses, both of them would be in trouble. The molestation eventually stopped, and although Lockhart tried to live normally at first, her feelings changed when she opened up to a friend about the abuse. Lockhart’s daughter also encouraged her to tell the truth.

“I feel like my life has been stolen from me. How could he do those things to his own daughter? He was supposed to love and cherish me, not take advantage of me. Of a seven year old child.”

The victim tried to save their father-daughter relationship by sending out simple cards whenever there were occasions, but no matter how hard she tried, she felt indifferent towards him.

She suffered from mental torture for a long time because of her experience. She had to deal with low self-esteem, self-loathing, and bulimia as a result. She said her father stole her life, and her relationships with men were also tainted because she gave herself “freely” to them.

Even if more than four decades have passed, the pain never went away.

“Even now when I see something on television with a dad and daughter with the dad taking care and being protective over her, it hurts because I never had that, and he never did that for me. He never treated me like a little princess, or a special girl, only when he was abusing me.”

She added that everyone in their hometown, Wythenshawe, knows Starkie as a nice man, and they have no idea about his “sordid little secret.”

Lockhart’s father is now 80 and is suffering from various health complications. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to “indecent assault to a girl under 14, indecency with a child under 14 and sexual intercourse with a child under 13.”

The evidence suggested that he had indeed thought of Lockhart as a “substitute sexual partner,” who was forced to satiate his urges. The court knows that he has health problems, and the sentence might consume all of his remaining years.

In India, an elderly father was likewise booked by the authorities after being accused of raping his daughter for more than 20 years. As per Times of India, the 70-year-old man started molesting his daughter in 1994 when she was 16. He often carried out the abuses by drugging her.

[Image by Stringer/Getty Images]

The daughter married, but the union didn’t last because the husband reportedly found her “too simple.” However, even after the marriage, her father continued to abuse her. He threatened her with the consequences she would endure if she revealed the secret to anyone.

Her mother had died, but the accused remarried. It was the stepmother who caught him raping the daughter. The stepmother urged her to tell the police, but she was unable to do so because she was in a state of shock. The stepmother then decided to speak for the woman who’s now undergoing counseling. She was commended by several online users for showing concern even if she wasn’t the woman’s biological mother.

[Featured Image by iStock]

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