‘PAEDOPHILE DAD ABUSED US – WHY HAVE WE NOT HAD JUSTICE?’
FAMILY SPEAKS OUT AFTER MAN SENTENCED FOR HISTORIC SEX CRIME
TWO sisters have waived their legal right to anonymity to claim they too were victims of their convicted sex offender dad.
Elliw Griffith, 19, and her 17-yearold sister Awel allege Jason Mark Hughes, of Ffordd Mela, Pwllheli, is a monster who took advantage of them when they were small.
The 44-year-old was jailed for three-and-a-half years last month after he was found guilty of indecent assault and indecency with a child some 25 years ago, when he was 18.
After a court heard Hughes, had never offended since those crimes in the 1990s, his daughters and their mother decided to speak out to tell a different story.
The girls’ mother Nia Griffith said she reported Hughes to police back in 2001 after Elliw, who was just three at the time, claimed she had been sexually abused by her dad.
She said both girls were medically examined and there was evidence they had been abused.
But, despite Hughes being arrested and charged with sex assaults against both girls, the CPS did not go ahead with the case.
Our sister paper The Daily Post attempted to put the allegations to Hughes through his solicitor but the law firm that represented him during his latest court appearance, Parry Davies Clwyd-Jones & Lloyd, declined to respond to enquiries.
Elliw told the Daily Post she didn’t understand why the case that resulted in Hughes being jailed and made to sign the sex offenders’ register for life was pursued, yet their complaints were not.
She said: “I don’t understand how this one particular story from 25 years ago can be taken seriously, but ours isn’t.
“How can this one offence send him to jail, yet we say he abused his children, but they’re not interested because they say there’s not enough evidence.
“I’ve always known what happened to me because over the years, I managed to figure it out. It was like pieces of the jigsaw kept coming together, but it was something I never discussed.
“I just wanted to try and forget about it – I thought if I never spoke about it, it never happened.
“Nobody’s ever believed us, so I thought what’s the point in talking about it? I told myself it was just something you have to deal with.”
Awel said she was too young to remember what had happened to her but, after she heard rumours, she challenged her mother as to whether it was true.
“I didn’t find out what had happened to me until I heard it from a friend.
“I came home crying and asked my mum whether it was true, and she told me it wasn’t. She was trying to protect me.
“But last year, my mum thought it was the right time to tell me the truth, and everything I had initially put to her was true.”
Mum Nia said that, in 2001, Elliw asked her mum if the fairy living on her shoulder was still listening to her.
Ms Griffith said: “I didn’t understand what she was talking about at first, but she said when I wasn’t in the house, her dad did things to her, and to Awel.
“She said to me he told her the fairy was listening to everything she said, and if she told me anything, the fairy would tell him.
“I phoned the police immediately, and they came round to the house straight away.”
Ms Griffith said police had taken away video evidence and a computer belonging to Hughes. But North Wales Police has not been able to say to the Daily Post what came of that evidence.
Ms Griffith added: “They took his computer away, and they found all kinds of videos on there. The police should have been able to hack into them, but we were told the hacker from North Wales Police couldn’t access them at the time.
“We later discovered the shed was full of tape recordings, and when they were played back, they were recordings of children crying.
“I didn’t know at the time, but he had hidden a camera in the living room, filming us 24/7. There were things on there that I still can’t get out of my head today.
“I just want justice for my girls. I’ve never had answers. I want to know why nothing has ever been done.
“I have asked for all the files back, and they told me they only keep the files for a certain amount of time.In the end, you eventually have to give up trying. Penygroes is only a small village, we were drawing a lot of attention to ourselves and I wanted the girls to have a break.”
As a result of the sexual offence allegations made against Hughes last year, in which he was sentenced for earlier this month, investigating officers made contact with the family for their consent to reopen the case. But due to the lack of “admissible evidence”, the case was not pursued a second time.
The family are now making efforts to gather more evidence in a bid to get the go ahead from the CPS.
Having spoken out, Elliw added: “It never goes away. You can have a really good day, but by the time you go to bed, it all comes flooding back. It messes with your head, It’s not a feeling you can explain. You always have constant reminders.
“It’s very important to speak out. Don’t be scared, it’s not something you have to keep to yourself, even if you’re told to keep it to yourself.”
North Wales Police confirmed that in 2001 they investigated sexual assaults perpetrated against a young child and infant in the Penygroes area which resulted in a local man being charged. Proceedings against him were discontinued a short time later by the CPS and no further legal action was taken.
The victim’s family were informed of this decision at the time by the investigating officer, a North Wales Police spokesman confirmed.
A spokesman for the CPS said: “All cases are considered in accordance with the two-stage test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. In this case, we considered the available evidence and concluded the evidential test set out in the Code had not been met and, therefore, the case could not proceed. We have written to the complainants to explain our decision.”