Brother (13) and sister (14) allegedly raped by same man from education sector

The brother and sister claim they were sexually abused by the same man when they were children and say the man was never prosecuted because their case was dropped “due to a lack of evidence” after they went to the RUC in Enniskillen.

The pair have alleged they were subjected to vile and depraved sex attacks at the hands of a man who worked in the education sector and then threatened them with physical abuse if they told anyone.

In separate interviews with The Impartial Reporter this week Helen and Kevin (not their real names) have recalled in vivid detail how the man, who still lives and works in the community, allegedly sexually abused them and got away with it.

Their father who was told by police that the case would not be pursued and their former teacher who called in the RUC officers at the time have also spoken to The Impartial Reporter for the latest report in our long-running series looking at historical sex abuse in Fermanagh. All four people have provided detailed accounts of what allegedly took place.

Helen, now 42, has spoken of her horror at believing she was pregnant after she was allegedly raped repeatedly by the man whose children she babysat and who offered to be her “boyfriend” when she was still a child herself.

Kevin, now 44, says the same man piled him with vodka and made him watch pornographic videos before abusing him. He also claims that a second man from the farming community, also sexually abused him along with other unidentified men, when he was 15.

None of the men at the centre of these allegations have been mentioned to this newspaper since our series began.

It is believed at least one of them may have access to children in his current role.

For Helen, now married with children of her own the memories are all too real.

“I remember one night I was asked to go to his house. I couldn’t believe it when he put on a porn movie and gave me a drink, it was whiskey. He tried to make me go to his bedroom but I said no, when I was leaving he tried to get me into his car, and I said no. I was 12,” she said.

The man, who was her parents’ neighbour and well trusted, allegedly told her that she “was always welcome to visit” and when she did several months of sexual abuse allegedly began.

“I can still picture the living room and the bedroom where the abuse took place. The bedroom was the last room on the right and there was a fireplace inside. On top of the mantlepiece was a photograph of two children.

“In the living room the television was in the corner. The abuse would start on the sofa and end in the bedroom and every time it happened, I would be scared,” she said.

Helen remembers being brought to the alleged abuser’s bedroom where he raped her, warning her that there would be “consequences” if she ever told her parents.

“Later I would discover that my period was late and I thought I was pregnant,” she said, explaining that she spoke privately to at least two of her school teachers who due to the seriousness of the issue informed her parents and the principal, a claim backed up by one of the teachers.

“I remember one of the teachers [provides her name] telling me how serious this was,” said Helen.

The teacher in question has corroborated this claim, telling The Impartial Reporter this week: “She was brought into the office and was in distress. I spoke to the principal, we got the family in and told them that they had to ring the police.”

Helen would later discover that not only did the same man allegedly abuse her older brother Kevin but like her he threatened him with physical violence, too. And such was the shock of the allegations being made that the pair’s mother collapsed on the floor of the police station.

But a criminal case did not proceed due to a lack of evidence.

“The police dropped the case, it was never pursued. The fact that we never got justice and the fact that I still pass his house where he lives sickens me to my stomach.

“I didn’t have much of a childhood because of him, he should be in jail for what he did. I was a child, he was an adult, and Kevin was my brother. I feel sick knowing what he did to him too. How many other victims of his are out there?” asked Helen.

And Kevin deals with the same torment every single day.

“Back then parents didn’t bat an eyelid with their kids going out selling tickets for lodges or sponsorship for school walks and on this occasion, I was selling tickets for the local Orange lodge,” recalled Kevin, who was 14 at the time.

“I went to this man’s house and he brought me into the kitchen. He was wearing a dressing gown and I noticed he had been pulling it open more and more and had revealed his penis. I panicked and told him I needed to go. I left the book of tickets with him.”

But a few days later Kevin had to go back to collect the money. He was invited into the house and asked to sit down on a chair in the living room.

“I tried to ask for the money but he told me to sit down, I was beginning to get nervous and frightened. He pulled a porn magazine from the shelf and passed it over to me. I started looking through it and began to blush.

“He said, ‘have a week look, I won’t tell your dad’ and offered me a drink. I took the drink and noticed it was very strong and he laughed and said ‘you’ve never had vodka before’. ‘Here throw it into you, he said, and I’ll pour you another’. I was beginning to feel brave and threw it down me and he went and got another.”

The alleged abuser then asked Kevin for his thoughts on the pornographic magazine before putting on a pornographic video on the television and sitting down beside him.

“While watching the movie he touched my hand and later grabbed my hand and started to rub his crotch. He let go of my hand and as I was going to get up he said ‘don’t be going now or I’ll tell your parents you’ve been drinking’. I sat back and he said ‘good boy’.

“He unzipped his trousers and pulled his penis out, grabbed my hand and made me stroke him. He then put his hand on my crotch and told me to pull my trousers down. I was so frightened and was shaking and said ‘do I have to’. He said yes or ‘I’ll tell your parents’. He started to touch me and told me to drink more of the vodka.”

The alleged abuser then carried out a string of sick sex attacks on the young boy despite the teenager breaking down in tears and begging for it to stop.

“He forced me to do what he said, he said he’d tell my parents I was drinking. After he sexually abused me he said if I ever told anyone what had happened he would injure me badly.

“He handed me twenty pounds and said a fiver was for the tickets and the rest for me. Then he said come up on the Friday night and I’ll get more money and if I didn’t he’d be telling my parents. This continued for months,” he said.

At 15 Kevin claims he was raped by another man, a farmer, after he met him in an Enniskillen pub.

“It was a Thursday night and I was working in a local business after school for extra money. At the end of the shift the girls said to me come along with us to the pub and we’ll get you in. I was excited because I’d never been there before.

“When we got in the girls got me a pint and then the man in question came up to me and because I knew him well we started chatting about farming,” he said.

After a few drinks the teenager was intoxicated and the man offered to drive him home. As they approached the Queen Elizabeth Road he persuaded Kevin to go to this flat for a “quick drink”.

“Inside I started to fall asleep and I remember him saying ‘go to sleep for an hour and I’ll wake you up and take you home’. I remember wakening and noticed my trousers were down and he was abusing me,” said Kevin, explaining that the abuse continued in his bedroom.

“I can still remember the pain and I cried out and he covered my mouth with his hand. He said ‘don’t tell anyone this has happened and I’ll look after you’. I felt I had to go along with it, he was well known and who would believe me? This went on for months, I felt trapped I didn’t know where or who to turn to. I was dating a wonderful girl and I couldn’t even tell her. He would invite me to his house when he had gay friends round and I would be shared around them and abused.”

Like his sister, Kevin will now speak to detectives after the PSNI set up a special team to review historic child sex abuse cases in Fermanagh following extensive coverage in this newspaper.

“I believe I deserve justice because these men stole my childhood; they took away a child and left a hollow space inside me. They stole my innocence because of their selfishness and left me with no pride or respect for myself. These men should be prosecuted for stealing the happy memories of an innocent child,” he said.

Kevin and Helen’s father has lived with the pain of knowing that his two children were allegedly abused and the preparators were never prosecuted.

He told this newspaper: “I remember the detectives coming out to the house to get the clothes that the children were wearing, then telling us they could get no DNA. They looked at me and one of them said, ‘forget all about it, we’ve no evidence, we only have the word of the two children’. What good was that?”

“We were let down by the police, no doubt about it. I was told that one of the abuser’s had connections to the police and it was speculated that was the reason why nothing was done. I would hope that was not the case.

“I would love to see these abusers getting what they deserve, I saw one of them recently and he laughed in my face. He’s a bad, bad man. The police need to take action,” he told this newspaper.