Raped by her father from age five.. Debbie then saw him bludgeon her mum to death. Now 33 years on she finally has justice IS PURE EVIL
me.” Sadist Hopkins also made Debbie put maggots in her mouth on fishing trips. And when they returned home he would fill her bathtub with eels and make her get in.
He once killed her pet rabbit and served it to the family for dinner.
“My father was a cruel tyrant. We all lived in fear of him,” says Debbie.
In June 1974, Sue and her children went to Skegness on a holiday leaving Hopkins behind at work.
VICIOUS
“It was the best time I’d ever had. We went to the beach, had picnics,” says Debbie. “My mum came alive. She was like a different woman, laughing and smiling. She decided she didn’t want to be with Dad any more.”
When Hopkins came to collect his family at the end of the holiday, Susan refused to go home and Debbie remembers a blazing row.
After giving his wife a vicious beating, he left with Debbie and two of her sisters, leaving the youngest child with Susan. Debbie said when they got home he raped her more violently than ever. When Susan returned next day, the row continued.
Debbie says: “It wasn’t like previous times. Mum was standing up for herself. She had her confidence back.”
Weeping, she continues: “I can’t remember exactly what happened that night, it was so horrendous.
“I was in bed and I could hear them shouting downstairs. I got scared and went down.
“I was going to go and tell them it was OK, I would go with my dad.
“I got to the bottom of the stairs and was rooted to the spot. I remember hearing Mum scream and seeing through the kitchen door the big stack of saucepans topple over.
“Then it all went quiet and Dad shut the door. I went back upstairs.”
Hopkins had battered her mum so hard with the hammer, one of her fingertips was sliced off as she tried to defend herself. The next morning he banned the children from the kitchen, sent them to school and handed himself into police saying he had killed hospital cleaner Susan that morning.
He told them: “Don’t take my cigs off me. I’ve killed my wife… I love her and I fetched her a lovely red rose from the garden. I gave it to her and she knocked it out of my hand. The hammer was there on the side… I just hit her and hit her with it.”
Debbie, of Sheffield, was sent to live with her father’s sister. She was forced to visit Hopkins in jail and write letters telling him how much she missed him.
She was 15 when he was released, and was appalled to be sent back to live with him.
“He never raped me again, but he found other ways to abuse me,” she says. “He used to make me stand at the bottom of the stairs when he was drunk and he would urinate on me.”
Debbie now has four grown-up children of her own with husband Vin, 56. Over the years her ordeal as a child has taken its toll.
She was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder in 1981 and has been hospitalised six times. She made several suicide attempts, including trying to crash her car at speed.
But now the guilt of that night is behind her and the future looks brighter. Debbie made sure of that by bravely giving evidence against Hopkins in court behind a screen, rather than via TV link.
She says: “It was terrifying, but it was something I had to do. I was at home when the verdict came in. The relief was immense. My dad will die in prison and I finally feel free.”
They were jealous that Dad was giving me special treatment