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Horror beyond comprehension
THE serious case review ordered into the background of a Sheffield father who repeatedly raped his daughters, making them pregnant an astonishing 19 times, faces many challenges.
But it has one key goal: to make sure child protection agencies learn the appropriate lessons so nobody has to ever again endure the horrors imposed on the victims in this case.
Details of this case have shocked even the most experienced welfare worker. Mercifully that is because it is so rare for a human being to cross the threshold of decency in this manner and to subject his own daughters to years of degradation. Further, the father's total disregard of his actions' consequences brought into this world several children who now carry medical burdens which will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
It is a horror beyond comprehension. And we hope the review brings a satisfactory list of recommendations to ensure children are properly protected.
And that means the welfare authorities must learn their lessons.
Without doubt, there were enough alarm bells sounding to warn a sufficiently alert official to the fact that something was desperately wrong.
Despite the fact that the father clearly did all in his power to ensure that his victims were too dominated and frightened to raise the alarm themselves, the facts should have been brought together to point out the shortcomings of the services.
That said, the authorities who were responsible for bringing about yesterday's conviction are to be congratulated. Once the terrible truth began to surface, there was no hesitation to pursue the case to its inevitable conclusion. And that conclusion was to be witnessed in court yesterday, when Sheffield's most senior judge handed out the only possible sentence - 25 terms of life imprisonment, one each for the specimen rape charges which the defendant had admitted against his defenceless daughters.
But the judge's words of condemnation fell on deaf ears. For the culprit, who had harboured a reputation as a hard man, did not even have the courage to step into the court and take his punishment like a man, instead he was allowed to skulk in his cell and await news of his fate.
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
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Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
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