Description
A mother has spoken of her anguish after a Jehovah’s Witness elder was jailed for systematically sexually abusing her young daughter.
David Dennis, 60, received a 12-year prison sentence after admitting 23 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault on a girl, committed over an eight-year period when she was aged 5 to 13.
The charges included:
- Nine counts of indecent assault on a child under 13 years old
- Twelve counts of sexual assault on a child under 13 years old
- Four counts of sexual assault by penetration on a child under 13 years old
The mother of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has now revealed her torment upon discovering the extent of the abuse and confronting Dennis in court.
She first learned of the abuse in June 2013, when her youngest daughter—now 19—confided in her 22-year-old sister that Dennis had touched her and forced her to perform sexual acts. The older sister then informed their mother.
“She looked white as a sheet; she said, ‘I have got something to tell you,’” the mother recalled. “My head just started to spin. I just started saying, ‘Are you sure?’ She said yes. She said, ‘I have been standing outside the door waiting. I just wanted to give you a few more minutes of normality.’ I was just devastated. She (the youngest daughter) came home. I looked at her and I said, ‘I am just so sorry.’”
The mother agonized for more than a year about whether to report the abuse to authorities. “She is a very shy girl. She’s not very confident,” she said. “She wanted me to keep it quiet. She wasn’t ready for people to find out. I had to wait for her to be ready.
“It got to the point where he was living his life like nothing had happened and she was suffering badly from depression. She couldn’t bear the fact that he was walking around and she was living in darkness.
“I tried to take my own life because I too suffered from depression. It just got too much, so she decided she wanted to go to the police. We didn’t tell anybody we were going to the police. We just went and did it.”
That decision initiated the legal process, and last month Dennis appeared at Truro Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to the offenses. As he admitted his crimes, Dennis blew a kiss toward the victim and her mother in the public gallery.
“I cried,” the mother said. “I just looked at him and I said, ‘Don’t do that. Just don’t.’ He is very manipulative. He messes with your head.”
The victim is now trying to recover, but her mother fears she may never lead a normal life. “She is bereft,” the mother said. “She suffers from anxiety and insomnia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Since we found out she has been better. She has got the support of her family, but she is scarred terribly.
“It will haunt me to the grave. She doesn’t want a relationship with anybody. She always wanted to be a midwife. Now she wants to disappear and run off with the Navy.
“She was so scared about coming forward because he was so well respected in the community. She didn’t think anyone would believe her, but I never doubted her for a second. I couldn’t believe it of him but I never doubted her.”
Dennis, of Chawleigh Close, Gunnislake, will be registered as a sex offender for life and banned indefinitely from working with children.