Evil dad’s sex texts blackmail
Beast tricked teen into blindfolded sex ordeal
an evil dad who pretended to be an anonymous blackmailer to force his daughter into having sex with him was yesterday jailed for 17 years.
David Masterson, 56, set up an elaborate scheme where he sent unsigned text messages to teenager Charlene demanding she engage in sex acts with men while blindfolded and wearing headphones.
When the panicked girl showed him the messages, he told her she would have to comply with the demands because his job was at risk - and then posed as the mystery visitor to abuse her himself.
He also later invited other men to take part over a seven-and-a-half year period.
The Central Criminal Court heard the evil scam began when Charlene was 18 and started getting anonymous texts demanding she carry out sex acts with men – while threatening to send information to her father’s workplace about her previously talking to boys in an online teenage chatroom.
Masterson told his daughter he would let someone into their home and she would have to do whatever this man wanted while wearing a blindfold and earphones playing music.
Masterson then came into the bedroom where she was blindfolded and began forcing her to give him oral sex and sexually assaulted her.
These incidents escalated to her having to engage sexually with two men while blindfolded. She believed she had no choice and that she was doing this to save her father’s job.
Charlene did not realise her father was behind everything until, at the age of 21, she found a DVD recording of the first time she was sexually abused by her father while she was wearing a blindfold.
She confronted him, but he claimed he was being blackmailed too and the abuse continued. Over sevenand-a-half years, she was forced to have sex with her father and other men on numerous occasions, the court heard.
It destroyed my life at one point... I won’t let it cling to rest of my life CHARLENE MASTERSON DUBLIN YESTERDAY
Unaware
She had no sexual experience whatsoever prior to the beginning of the attacks. Masterson also physically assaulted her and threatened to kill her on several occasions.
The abuse finally came to an end in June 2014 when Charlene told a teacher what had happened and then informed her mother.
Her mother had been “completely unaware” of what had been going on as it always took place while she was out of the house. Masterson moved out of the family home, but Masterson went on to defile three more girls, having sexual encounters with two teenagers and entering into a sexual relationship with a third, who lived with him for a period of time.
In interview with gardai, Masterson admitted his daughter’s version of events were “100%” true.
He accepted there were other men involved but only told gardai one of their names and claimed it was the only name he knew. He said this man had known that the victim was his daughter.
Masterson, formerly of Tallaght in West Dublin, pleaded guilty to the oral rape and sexual assault of his daughter at the family home in Dublin on dates between April 1, 2007 and May 31, 2007.
He pleaded guilty to the same offences at the same address on dates between November 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of having carnal knowledge of a female person who he knew to be his daughter, one count on a date unknown between April 1, 2007, and August 31, 2007, and the second count on a date unknown between May 1, 2014, and June 30, 2014.
A further 25 counts, including 14 counts of incest and one count of possessing child pornography, were taken into account.
Masterson was already serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise for the defilement offences when he came to trial for the rape of his daughter. He has 17 previous convictions, including the defilement of a child and possession and distribution of child pornography.
Brave Charlene, who is now 32, told the court she wished to waive her right to anonymity.
In her victim impact statement, which she previously read out in court, she said she was a survivor, not victim, of sexual abuse.
Charlene said growing up she always feared her father and this fear will be with her always. She said she was defenceless and was “easy prey” for him and others “in his sick world”.
Breach of trust... He has a limited insight into his crimes JUDGE MICHAEL WHITE COURT YESTERDAY
She said she was forced into doing a college course she did not want to do by her abuser.
She had wanted to be a teacher or nurse, but he refused to let her pick these careers and she is now in a job she hates.
degradation
Charlene said she had had a dream of being married and having children by the time she was 30, but she does not now feel like that will ever happen for her.
She said it was “like living with Patrick Bergin in the movie Sleeping with the Enemy”, but that she could not swim away like Julia Roberts did in the film.
Speaking after yesterday’s sentencing, Charlene said she was moving past the ordeal her father inflicted on her.
She added: “No sentence will ever probably be enough but I do feel that the judge understood the control and the repercussions that occurred over the seven-and-a half years.
“I haven’t gone off the rails. It did destroy my life at one point but I’m determined it won’t determine the rest of my life. I’m not going to let it cling to the rest of my life now. It’s done. I hope I’m an example to anyone else out there that they can get to the other side of it and I know it’s a very very dark tunnel at times but there is light at the end of it.”
Sentencing, Judge Michael White said there had been a “fundamental breach of trust” between a father and his only daughter. He said Masterson had subjected her to degradation by his actions, and has “limited insight into his crimes”. Judge White sentenced Masterson to 18 years in prison for each of the four counts of oral rape, suspending the final year and ordering one year of post-release supervision.
He also sentenced Masterson to five years imprisonment for two offences of sexual assault, running concurrently with his other sentences for an effective operative sentence of 18 years imprisonment with the final year suspended.