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to talk to Rob, who eventually admitted everything. They then arrested Cheryl and Sean. Sean’s girlfriend said that she’d stand by him and he soon bought her an engagement ring.
    For the first time in her life, Cheryl told adults – the police – about the fact that her father had been havingsex with her. The police believed her but James’s mother and sister did not. They said that he might have touched her inappropriately in play but that he would never have had full intercourse.
    Cheryl added that she was carrying her father’s baby and that he knew this and had been trying to arrange an abortion for her. But she soon had a miscarriage – and tests on the foetus proved that the baby was Rob’s.

The trial
    There was further damaging evidence against Cheryl at the trial when her ten-year-old sister JoAnn – now living with James’s mother who didn’t believe the allegations of abuse – wrote a letter to the jury. She said that she’d often seen Cheryl lying on top of her father, but hadn’t seen her father reciprocate.
    Incest experts were quick to point out that sexually abused children are encouraged by their abusers to be highly seductive. In other words, it was likely that Cheryl was doing what her father insisted of her. And JoAnn had previously told a neighbour that ‘Daddy slept with Cheryl last night’ and the neighbour testified to this at the trial.
    Cathleen’s friends also came forward to say that James was always hitting the children and pulling their hair and punching them. They’d seen him touching Cheryl’s bottom and he’d asked a neighbour ‘ doesn’t she have a nice pair of tits?’
    A neighbour reported that Cathleen’s stepfather had seen James and Cheryl in bed together under the sheets, with Cheryl lying on top of her father. A regular babysitter at the house said that James would grab her and that it was clear he held women in low regard.
    Cheryl herself said that her father had made her masturbate him after her mother became ill – but that after her mother died the abuse had increased to include intercourse. She said that she’d wanted to kill him because she feared he was about to start abusing JoAnn. Cheryl was often out at cheerleading practice and her father had started to wrestle with JoAnn the way he had with her.
    An alternative explanation was that Cheryl knew she was expecting Rob’s baby and was terrified. After all, her father hit her for virtually nothing, so what would he do when he knew she was with child?
    But an expert on child sexual abuse testified that she’d spent time with Cheryl since her arrest and that the teenager did fit the profile of an incest survivor. She said she came to her conclusion by looking at Cheryl’s physical state, the testimony of witnesses, photographs of the family, the profile of James Pierson and Cheryl’s account of what had taken place.
    And the judge noted that most of the witnesses in court had suspected that Cheryl was being abused by her father – but only her teenage friend had actually done the right thing by telling a responsible adult. That is, she’d told her guidance teacher but the teacher had not done anything.

The sentence
    Ultimately, the judge believed Cheryl’s account of what had happened and said that she’d been subjected to repeated acts of intercourse by her father. She collapsed on the floor before the sentence was read out and had to be revived and helped into a chair. The judge said that she must serve six months in jail then remain on probation for five years.
    There was much less to debate at Sean’s trial. The prosecution said that he was a cold-blooded killer who had shot James Pierson for financial gain. They also alleged that he was a drug addict. Sean’s defence said that if the motive had been financial he’d have asked for much more cash. They offered psychological reports which said that Sean had believed he was the only person who could help Cheryl, who was clearly in a very bad