Teenager drugged and raped by her own father 'every day' for two years

Emma Burt says the abuse started when she was 15

Tuesday 13 September 2016 18:06 BST
Emma Burt’s father was jailed for 12 years for rape and four charges of sexual activity with a child family member
Emma Burt’s father was jailed for 12 years for rape and four charges of sexual activity with a child family member (Shutterstock)

A teenager was drugged and raped by her own father every day for two years.

Emma Burt, now aged 19, faced the abuse from Christopher Wayne Edwards, who referred to her as “his wife”, from the age of 15 onwards.

Edwards, who is from Wales, began abusing Ms Burt one month after she moved in with him following a disagreement with her mother.

The 40-year-old initially fed his daughter cannabis until she passed out and, as the abuse worsened, Ms Burt became addicted to amphetamines and cocaine, the Daily Mail reported.

Ms Burt said she became dependent on the drugs as it allowed her to “ignore what was going on”.

“In the first two months of his abusing me, he would never talk about how he raped me. He just would wait until I was asleep - or close to sleeping - and then it got to the point where he was giving me drugs constantly to try and keep me under the thumb,” she told the Sun Online.

“I was dependent on the drugs. The more I took, the more I could ignore what was going on. But then I realised how bad I looked because of the drugs. Reality started to hit me. I had to get out.”

Even after escaping, Ms Burt has found it very difficult to deal with what has happened.

“On December 14 2014 I jumped off a 40 foot bridge, into the River Severn in Newtown,” she said.

Ms Burt opened up to her family and told them about her ordeal, and they contacted the police.

She is now clean of drugs and hopes that waiving her anonymity and sharing her story will help others to speak out.

Edwards has been jailed for 12 years for rape and four charges of sexual activity with a child family member. He also pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing an indecent photograph, three charges of taking indecent photographs and supplying his daughter with drugs.

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