Two cousins have spoken up about the horrifying sexual abuse they experienced as children at the hands of the same guy, and how they only came to realize they were also victims after he was put on trial earlier this year.
Jo Keegan, 48, and Tracy Gibson, 54, both from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, spent the majority of their adult lives trying to keep the sexual abuse and rape they suffered at the hands of John Kelk, now 68, a secret. Jo was Kelk’s stepdaughter, and Tracy was his niece.
Jo and Tracy spoke to FEMAIL about the vile treatment they received, including being raped with a screwdriver and made to consume weed killer as punishment.
When they were young, both women made an attempt to inform their mothers about Kelk but were rejected. When Tracy told her mother about the abuse, she claimed she was called a “dirty little s**t” and told she must have been lying.
After being found guilty of 22 offenses from the 1970s and 1980s, including rape and sexual assault, Kelk was sentenced to 30 years in jail in May of this year.
Tracy and Jo both testified against him, and during the trial they startlingly learned that they had both been the victims of his heinous torture. When Tracy was ten years old, Kelk started to sexually assault her while watching after her on Friday afternoons after she got home from school.
‘He used to have a smell about him, one that I will never forget, it was vile and for 45 years it never left me,’ she was telling FEMAIL.
‘I used to dread Fridays it was usually the day I would see my father but, as my parents weren’t together, until he came to get me, I would be with John. ‘He would rape me and it would hurt and make me bleed. He would make me get in the bath afterwards.
’
Jo said how she was portrayed as the family’s “black sheep” and that when visitors arrived, they were informed that she was a “liar.” She tried to inform the family’s social services, but John and her mother sought to place the responsibility on her biological father.
Jo and Tracy are both dedicated to helping sexual abuse victims and are working hard to get their message of empathy and support out there as much as they can.
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