A BRAVE dad who was raped by his uncle has spoken out about the devastating moment he discovered his four-year-old daughter also became the paedophile’s victim decades later.

John* was abused regularly by his depraved uncle between the age of four and 11 and raped from the age of ten.

The paedophile also subjected John’s older sister as well as his best friend and his friend's sister who lived next door to his horrific abuse, at times abusing them all together.

However despite numerous cries for help to health workers as a youngster, John received no support. He suffered a mental breakdown and as a result his mind totally blanked out his traumatic ordeal.

Decades later memories of his horrific past came flooding back and he summoned the courage to tell the police.

However devastatingly, police officers discovered the paedophile had also targeted his daughter.

Two years ago his abuser was finally jailed for 16 years after admitting carrying out a string of serious sex attacks on the four children.

The 37-year-old has now bravely spoken out to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward and get support.

“It was just hell. The abuse was constant. It was four, five, six times a week. Sometimes more. It was all of us together at times.

“He used to say to me: ‘This is our little secret’ and said if I said anything it would rip my parents apart and I'd be arrested.”

His uncle would even take graphic photographs of the children and hide them in places to threaten the children.

John said: “He’d hide them up in the park, up in the woods. He’d bury them then he’d take us there and pull them out and would say ‘remember this time?’ ‘Don’t say a word, don’t forget what will happen if you do.’

“It just went on and on.

“Even the judge turned around after reading all the evidence and said he couldn’t believe I was here still and that I hadn’t killed myself.”

John, who now lives in Bournemouth with his wife of 15 years and children, did try to take his own life between the ages of 11 and 18 when he received no support.

He said: “There were 493 pages on my mental health from aged 11 to 17. I was crying out so many times to the doctor but still nothing was done. Back in that day, everything was just swept under the carpet. I even went into a psychiatric hospital but I was told it was all in my head and I was making it up. My mind just blanked everything.”

John maintained a relationship with his uncle, who even moved nearby when John suffered a mental breakdown to ‘help him recover.’

It was there he unknowingly sexually assaulted John’s four-year-old daughter.

“Every time I was with him I knew there was something about him but my mind had just blanked everything. I've since realised that is what happens with post traumatic stress disorder.”

Three years ago John’s sister reported the abuse she suffered to police and John received a phone call from his uncle out of the blue bribing him not to say anything.

“That night I had nightmares," he explained.

"I bit my wife and punched her in my sleep. It all came back to me. I woke up and I got straight on the phone to the police and we went to the station.

“The officers interviewed my daughter and that’s when we discovered she had been abused too.

“My world just fell apart.

“He had told my daughter exactly the same as what he told me when I was four. I felt sick. I was raging. He had stayed with us and slept in our room and did it in the night while we were downstairs. That’s how cocky he was, there was a house full of people.”

John, who has also twice survived cancer, said his family packed up their house and moved to Dorset where they received support at Dorset Rape Crisis.

“It took me a lot to call the police and it took me a lot to get onto Dorset Rape Crisis but once I made that initial phone call, I haven’t looked back since.

“They have been absolutely amazing and have been there every step of the way.

“I think it is harder for men to come forward because there is a lot of stigma. There is a lot of stigma attached. If reading my story, if I can help just one man in Dorset and let him know he doesn’t have to suffer alone, that would mean the world to me.

“If it hadn’t have been for Dorset Rape Crisis, I wouldn’t be here today and I don’t know what kind of mess my daughter would be in. She has also received support and she is a happy little girl. They have done so much for us. They just don’t get enough support.

“It just curdles up inside you and it affects your whole life. I want others to know there is no shame in coming forward.

“It was only last year when I was getting counselling from Dorset Rape Crisis I remembered how the abuse stopped. I ran to the toilet and I was violently sick.

“It was because my auntie caught him doing stuff to me but I couldn’t understand why she didn’t step in.

“Still things come back to me. What he has done to me, and the people I love, will haunt me forever."

John, who still struggles with mental health issues and cannot go anywhere alone but campaigns to raise awareness, said: “He took my innocence. He literally stripped my childhood away from me. I had no life because of him. My life started when I met my wife and had my children but he has taken so much from me.

"When he was sentenced he said 'now I've coughed to it, they can all move on.' There was no remorse but his acts have ruined lives.”

*Dorset Rape Crisis Support Centre is a voluntary organisation run for men, women, children and young people who have been raped or sexually abused.

Contact the Helpline on 01202 308855 or for more information go to dorsetrapecrisis.org

*Name has been changed to protect victim's identity