Woman sexually abused for 7 years learnt her father masterminded it
Published: 08:01 GMT, 1 November 2024
A woman has recalled her horrific ordeal at being repeatedly sexually assaulted in a blackmail ploy for seven years - before discovering her abuser was her own father.
David Masterson, 56, from Dublin, Ireland, was jailed for 17 years for a campaign of sexual abuse towards his daughter Charlene, now 32, which began when she was 18 and continued until she was 25.
Charlene has since turned her hand to campaigning - with former Taoiseach Micheál Martin among those praising her bravery.
Now speaking to The Indo Daily podcast, Charlene, who bravely waived her right to anonymity, revealed her father started abusing her in 2007 after making up a bizarre blackmail plot which forced her into performing sex acts while blindfolded and with music playing in her ears.
It all began when the then teenager received an anonymous text message which claimed to have incriminating information about her that would be leaked if she did not perform the acts. It later transpired the text had been send by David.
Her father would pretend to let a person into their home while Charlene was blindfolded and had music in her ears. Pretending he was a different person each time, David would then force her to give him oral sex and in turn, sexually assault her.
The abuse started when shortly after she turned 18, afterwards she realised her father had been controlling her since her early teens.
In her victim statement in court, Charlene said there was still a 'massive stigma' in Ireland around rape.
She has since been campaigning to change the system to develop a message similar to FAST alert for victims of strokes.
She added her abuse took place for seven and a half years and she had had seven years since to 'process it. I'm out the other side now'.
Speaking about how the campaign of abuse began, she to the Indo podcast: 'I randomly got messages from a number, I didn't know the number, and it read ''I know what you did'', and anyone that knows me, knows I hate being in trouble, so I immediately panicked.'
Charlene explained that, although she hadn't done anything to be exposed for, she still 'tried to fix' things, and replied to the person at the other end of the phone - not realising it was her own father.