âOur silence permits perpetrators to continueâ: one womanâs fight to expose a fatherâs abuse
Clare Devlin was abused for years by her father but felt unable to speak out until now. Photograph: Chloë Ellingson/The Observer
Clare Devlin was abused for years by her father but felt unable to speak out until now. Photograph: Chloë Ellingson/The Observer
At 81, after years of suffering, Clare Devlin has joined the campaign to stop sex crime against children by revealing her own ordeal at the hands of her celebrated judge parent
Sun 25 Jul 2021 02.30 EDT
Clare Devlinâs first memory of being sadistically and sexually snared by her father was when she was seven. But she knows that wasnât the first time it had happened. She remembers a feeling of dread of something already known, a ârecognition of feelings of fear and anger and griefâ. The abuse continued throughout her childhood and adolescence until she finally found a way to stop the man w