‘My world crumbled’: The teenage girl who found out her dad was a child sex offender
Ava was heading home from Pizza Hut when she found out her dad had been arrested.
Warning: This article includes references to indecent images of children and suicide that some readers may find distressing
It had been “a really good evening” celebrating her brother’s birthday.
Ava (not her real name) was just 13, and her brother several years younger. Their parents had divorced a few years earlier and they were living with their mum.
Suddenly Ava’s mum, sitting in the front car seat next to her new boyfriend, got a phone call.
“She answered the phone and it was the police,” Ava remembers.
“I think they realised that there were children in the back so they kept it very minimal, but I could hear them speaking.”
“I was so scared,” she says, as she overheard about his arrest.
‘Ava’ says she was ‘repulsed’ after discovering what her dad had done
“I was panicking loads because my dad actually used to do a lot of speeding and I was like: ‘Oh no, he’s been caught speeding, he’s going to get in trouble.'”
But Ava wasn’t told what had really happened until many weeks later, even though things changed immediately.
“We found out that we weren’t going to be able to see our dad for, well we didn’t know how long for – but we weren’t allowed to see him, or even speak to him. I couldn’t text him or anything. I was just wondering what was going on, I didn’t know. I didn’t understand.”
Ava’s dad, John, had been arrested for looking at indecent images of children online.
We hear this first-hand from John (not his real name), who we interviewed separately from Ava. What he told us about his offending was, of course, difficult to hear.
His offending went on for several years, looking at indecent images and videos of young children.
His own daughter told us she was “repulsed” by what he did.
But John wanted to speak to us, frankly and honestly.
He told us he was “sorry” for what he had done, and that it was only after counselling that he realised the “actual impact on the people in the images” of his crime.
By sharing his story, he hopes to try to stop other people doing what he did and raise awareness about the impact this type of offence has – on everyone involved, including his unsuspecting family.
John tells us he’d been looking at indecent images and videos of children since 2013.
“I was on the internet, on a chat site,” he says. “Someone sent a link. I opened it, and that’s what it was.
“Then more people started sending links and it just kind of gathered pace from there really. It kind of sucks you in without you even realising it. And it becomes almost like a drug, to, you know, get your next fix.”
John says he got a “sexual kick” from looking at the images and claims “at the time, when you’re doing it, you don’t realise how wrong it is”.
‘I told them exactly what they would find’
At the point of his arrest, John had around 1,000 indecent images and videos of children on his laptop – some were Category A, the most severe.
Referencing the counselling that he since received, John says he believes the abuse he received as a child affected the way he initially perceived what he was doing.
“I had this thing in my mind,” he says, “that the kids in these were enjoying it.”
“Unfortunately, [that] was the way that my brain was wired up” and “I’m not proud of it”, he adds.
John had been offending for several years when he downloaded an image that had been electronically tagged by security agencies. It flagged his location to police.
John was arrested at his work and says he “straight away just admitted everything”.
“I told them exactly what they would find, and they found it.”
The police bailed John – and he describes the next 24 hours as “hell”.
“I wanted to kill myself,” he remembers. “It was the only way I could see out of the situation. I was just thinking about my family, my daughter and my son, how is it going to affect them?”
But John says the police had given information about a free counselling service, a helpline, which he called that day.
“It stopped me in my tracks and probably saved my life.”
‘John’ thinks children of abusers should get more support
‘My world was crumbling around me’
Six weeks later, John was allowed to make contact with Ava.
By this point she describes how she was “hysterically crying” at school every day, not knowing what had happened to her dad.
But once he told her what he’d done, things got even worse.
“When I found out, it genuinely felt like my world was crumbling around me,” Ava says.
“I felt like I couldn’t tell anyone. I was so embarrassed of what people might think of me. It sounds so silly, but I was so scared that people would think that I would end up like him as well, which would never happen.
“It felt like this really big secret that I just had to hold in.”
“I genuinely felt like the only person that was going through something like this,” Ava says.
She didn’t know it then, but her father also had a sense of fear and shame.
“You can’t share what you’ve done with anybody because people can get killed for things like that,” he says.
“It would take a very, very brave man to go around telling people something like that.”
And as for his kids?
“They wouldn’t want to tell anybody, would they?” he says.
For her, Ava says “for a very, very long time” things were “incredibly dark”.
“I turned to drugs,” she says. “I was doing lots of like Class As and Bs and going out all the time, I guess because it just was a form of escape.
“There was a point in my life where I just I didn’t believe it was going to get better. I really just didn’t want to exist. I was just like, if this is what life is like then why am I here?”
Professor Armitage says children of abusers should be legally recognised as victims
‘The trauma is huge for those children’
Ava felt alone, but research shows this is happening to thousands of British children every year.
Whereas suspects like John are able to access free services, such as counselling, there are no similar automatic services for their children – unless families can pay.
Professor Rachel Armitage, a criminology expert, set up a Leeds-based charity called Talking Forward in 2021.
It’s the only free, in-person, peer support group for families of suspected online child sex offenders in England. But it does not have the resources to provide support for under-18s.
“The trauma is huge for those children,” Prof Armitage says.
“We have families that are paying for private therapy for their children and getting in a huge amount of debt to pay for that.”
Prof Armitage says if these children were legally recognised as victims, then if would get them the right level of automatic, free support.
It’s not unheard of for “indirect” or “secondary” victims to be recognised in law.
Currently, the Domestic Abuse Act does that for children in a domestic abuse household, even if the child hasn’t been a direct victim themselves.
In the case of children like Ava, Prof Armitage says it would mean “they would have communication with the parents in terms of what was happening with this offence; they would get the therapeutic intervention and referral to school to let them know that something has happened, which that child needs consideration for”.
We asked the Ministry of Justice whether children of online child sex offenders could be legally recognised as victims.
“We sympathise with the challenges faced by the unsuspecting families of sex offenders and fund a helpline for prisoners’ families which provides free and confidential support,” a spokesperson said.
But when we spoke with that helpline, and several other charities that the Ministry of Justice said could help, they told us they could only help children with a parent in prison – which for online offences is, nowadays, rarely the outcome.
None of them could help children like Ava, whose dad received a three-year non-custodial sentence, and was put on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
“These children will absolutely fall through the gap,” Prof Armitage says.
“I think there’s some sort of belief that these families are almost not deserving enough,” she says. “That there’s some sort of hierarchy of harms, and that they’re not harmed enough, really.”
‘Ava’ started taking drugs after her dad’s arrest and ‘didn’t want to exist’
‘People try to protect kids from people like me’
Ava says there is simply not enough help – and that feels unfair.
“In some ways we’re kind of forgotten about by the services,” she says. “It’s always about the offender.”
John agrees with his daughter.
“I think the children should get more support than the offender because nobody stops and ask them really, do they?” he says.
“Nobody thinks about what they’re going through.”
Although Ava and John now see each other, they have never spoken about the impact that John’s offending had on his daughter.
Ava was happy for us to share with John what she had gone through.
“I never knew it was that bad,” he says. “I understand that this is probably something that will affect her the rest of her life.
“You try to protect your kids, don’t you. People try to protect their kids from people like me.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Eight babies have been born in the UK with DNA from three people following a procedure to eliminate an incurable inherited disease.
It is a major advance for the technique, called mitochondrial donation therapy, designed to prevent a life-limiting, often fatal illness caused by genetic mutations in the structures that generate energy in all our cells.
It is also a test of the UK’s permissive but highly regulated stance on human embryo research that allowed a technique once criticised for creating “three-parent babies” to proceed.
This image shows the embryo replacement procedure. Pic: PA
The babies, four girls and four boys – two of them identical twins – were all born in the last five years and are healthy, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“It’s a great success for these families,” said Sir Doug Turnbull, emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle who helped pioneer the treatment.
“This is a devastating disease with no cure and without this technique, they would not feel that their families were free of mitochondrial disease. This gives them that opportunity.”
Mitochondrial disease affects around one in 5,000 babies born in the UK.
Depending on the number and type of mutations in their mitochondria, the severity and type of disease can vary, but includes neurological, metabolic and developmental disorders.
Only women at high risk of passing on severe disease qualify for the procedure, provided though a specialist facility at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The identities of the seven families and their babies are being withheld, but a mother of one of the baby boys speaking anonymously said: “The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”
Pic: PA
How does the technique work?
The procedure involves removing the genetic information from an affected mother’s fertilised embryo before inserting it into one from a healthy female donor, from which the genetic information has been removed.
Crucially, the hundreds of thousands of diseased mitochondria are left behind, leaving the new embryo with healthy ones present in the donor embryo.
Mitochondria contain a tiny amount of their own unique genetic code, so the resulting babies carry DNA from three different people.
But because it represents just 0.02% of our total DNA and has no bearing on genetic traits we inherit from our parents, researchers behind the technique, have never liked the “three-parent” moniker.
However, the technique – whatever you choose to call it – isn’t perfect.
A total of 22 women underwent the procedure but only seven became pregnant, resulting in eight births – a 36% success rate.
Five of the eight babies were born with no trace of disease.
But tests on the other three revealed a small percentage of mutated mitochondria had been carried over during the procedure.
Read more from Sky News:
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While they are at levels too low to cause mitochondrial disease, the babies will require careful follow-ups to ensure they continue to develop normally.
“We have designed a study specifically for that purpose,” said Professor Bobby McFarland, who leads the service in Newcastle.
“That’s what is unique about us offering this in Newcastle because there isn’t anywhere else in the world that’s doing this in a regulated way.”
While there’s good reason to expect the children will develop normally, the procedure does take medicine into new territory.
Because mitochondria contain their own genetic code, girls born via the technique – carrying those from the healthy donor – will pass that on to any children they may have in future.
Changing the “germ-line” in such a way has raised ethical concerns.
But for seven new families, and more to follow, the procedure promises to cure a disease that has affected their families for generations.
The number of acid attacks has risen 10% in a year, according to a Freedom of Information request to UK police forces.
Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) said its analysis shows 498 physical attacks involving corrosive substances were recorded in 2024 – compared with 454 in the previous year.
According to the charity, the real figure is likely to be even higher because of under-reporting by victims.
In 2023, both Northumbria Police and the Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of physical attacks – 18% and 16% respectively.
But figures in 2024 showed a significant fall in attacks in London, dropping by 78%, while cases in Northumbria rose substantially.
ASTI executive director Jaf Shah told Sky News that attacks in Northumbria account for almost 25% of the nationwide total – despite making up just 2% of the population.
He explained: “Historically, London has always seen the highest number attacks, which is unsurprising because of the population. But what we’ve seen in the 2024 data is a massive drop in the number of attacks in London to just 16.
“Whereas in Northumbria we’ve seen a 49% increase to 121 attacks, so there’s a massive disparity in terms of numbers, especially relative to population figures for each of those corresponding areas. So this is obviously a very worrying trend.”
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In July 2024, four men were handed life sentences for ammonia murders
Mr Shah added there was supporting evidence about the type of attacks taking place in the Northumbria force area.
“Professor Francisco Figueiredo, who is head of ophthalmology at Newcastle University … certainly picked up on an increase of young men receiving treatment with corrosive injuries in the eye.
“A lot of the injuries he’s treated are related to the use of ammonia … that’s quite different to some of the attacks we’ve seen in other parts of the UK where sulphuric acid is commonly used.”
West Midlands Police also recorded a significant increase in attacks – rising 82% between 2023 and 2024 – and making up 12% of the UK total.
ASTI states the FOI data reveals acid attacks in the UK are historically associated with male-on-male violence and often linked to gang activity.
Of the 224 physical attacks where gender data was recorded, a third of victims were female, reflecting the increasing use of acid as a weapon of violence against women and girls.
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How Clapham chemical attack in January 2024 unfolded
ASTI also commissioned research, conducted by Frontier Economics, which concluded that the financial impact of all acid attacks in 2024 was more than £31m.
The study estimated that a single attack costs £63,000, consisting of the medical and psychological support victims require and paying for the criminal justice system to deal with perpetrators.
ASTI also told Sky News it was recommending reforms to tackle the “lack of robust checks on sales of corrosives”, especially via online retailers.
Read more from Sky News:
Katie Piper reveals artificial eye decision
Victim’s eye saved after acid attack
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Acid attack ‘devastates lives’
Commander Stephen Clayman, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for corrosive substances, said an attack “devastates lives and causes physical and psychological damage to victims that can last a lifetime” and officers were committed “to tackle this appalling crime”.
In a statement, he added: “Many corrosive substances are available over the counter at supermarkets and DIY stores.
“It is important that law enforcement and government work closely with retailers themselves, to enhance our intelligence picture, and determine the best ways to keep these products from falling into the hands of people who intend to use them to cause harm.
“Serious crimes such as this should not go unreported and we want victims to feel able to come forward and report these matters to us.”
“It was like hell on Earth.”
Warning: This article includes references to sexual abuse and suicide that some readers may find distressing.
Colin (not his real name) is one of 19 alleged abuse victims who has come forward following a Sky News investigation into a closed children’s home in Norfolk.
The total number is now 62.
Numerous people have told us that they experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse at The Small School at Red House run by a Danish organisation called Tvind, which has been described as a cult.
Colin was taken into care after being a victim of sexual exploitation, but when he arrived at The Red House at 15, his personal, painful history was used against him.
“A couple of the lads grabbed hold of me,” he said. “They’d been told that I was a rent boy before I got there, they wanted to knock me into shape. I contemplated killing myself. I’d never experienced that humiliation.”
Children were sent to The Red House from all over the country. Some have told Sky News that violent staff broke their fingers, threw them down the stairs and even locked them in rooms with Alsatians.
Sadly for Colin, his experience of sexual exploitation continued at the home.
“They put these three lads in my room, they squeezed me round my neck and I passed out,” he said. “When I came round they were sexually abusing me. I was screaming and screaming. The next day I ran and I never went back there.”
The home was run by the Tvind School Cooperative of Denmark. A controversial group founded in the late 1960s, they opened around 30 radical schools in Denmark, mostly for disadvantaged children, and two in England. Many have since closed.
Inspections by regulatory bodies reveal growing concerns about The Red House. In 1990, the Social Services Inspectorate wrote to directors of local authorities warning them against sending children to the home.
An inspection report made by Norfolk County Council in 1994 shows they were aware of alleged “sexual abuse” and “physical abuse” involving 20 children.
Yet the home continued to operate and three years after that inspection report, Norfolk County Council sent a teenage boy to the Red House.
“Red House was this black hole where they could just dump people and not worry about them,” he says.
“Whilst I was there I can’t even think of one instance when my social worker turned up to come and check on me.”
He is one of the many alleged victims in the process of suing Norfolk County Council and the local authorities which sent children to the home.
Read more:
The Red House: The children’s home run like a cult
The Danish group behind a children’s home run like a cult
Daniel Lemberger Cooper is representing victims on behalf of Imran Khan and Partners.
“[We] urge Norfolk Council, who are the centre of this and whose geographic area Red House was based, to tell the truth. They were aware very early on … about abuse and allegations of abuse and they failed to act.”
Victims are also being supported by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association who are urging any more people to come forward.
The home was shut down in 1998. Norfolk Police have done two investigations into allegations of abuse but no one has been charged.
Those still working for Tvind in Denmark say they are not associated with the former cooperative.
Norfolk County Council says: “We continue to investigate and respond to those private claims through the appropriate legal channels.
“Our thoughts are with all survivors of abuse but, as there is an ongoing legal claim relating to Red House, we cannot comment further at this time.”
People can contact the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association by visiting: www.smallschoolredhouse.co.uk.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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