David Pethig – North Wales

A daughter was told of how she was raped and abused from the age of four by her own dad and how the truth began to come to light when the house was burgled.

Lizzie Jones, 49, said her life seemed perfect as a toddler when she lived with her mother, brother, and father David Terrence Pethig, now 70, at their family home in north Wales.

But while her mum was out working all hours to support the family, her father started playing sick games with Lizzie when they were alone at the house in Wrexham.

Before long Lizzie told of how the games started involving sexual abuse and when she reached her early teens her father would rape her most days.

She has bravely told how this abuse went on until she was 15 and she was able to find the strength to demand that he stop.

She never told anyone but in 2011 her parents divorced when a burglary at their home uncovered Pethig’s laptop was filled with indecent images of children.

The burglar broke into Pethig’s home, discovered the stash and then police received an anonymous tip-off. The unknown raider arranged to leave the laptop at an unoccupied house in Wrexham where officers found the computer and disks in a black bin bag.

Pethig admitted 17 charges of making indecent images and two of possessing indecent images and video – but he was spared a prison sentence.

After eight years, encouraged that some of the truth had finally come out, Lizzie told her mum what her dad had done to her.

They went to the police and he was charged with 15 indecent assaults, three rapes, an assault by penetration, and what would have been charged at the time as attempting to commit a serious sexual assault.

Lizzie, from Wrexham, who has waived her right to lifelong anonymity to tell the world about her father, said: “The abuse would take place in the evening when my brother went to bed because he was only a baby. The abuse happened nearly every night. He would say: ‘Do you like it girl?’ When I said ‘no’ he would do it harder.

“He used to shove a thermometer inside of me saying that he would check my temperature and I would say ‘I’m not ill’ and he would say: ‘But I have to check it.’ I thought this is what dads used to do to their children. He said he would hurt my mum and I would never see her again if I told her what he was doing to me.

“I’d try to get away, I’d cry and scream and he would say: ‘Don’t cry, just keep still – it won’t hurt if you keep still.’ Some nights where my mum was downstairs he would touch me. He had no fear of getting caught.

“He used games to get near me – when he used to try and give me a hug I would say ‘don’t touch me’ and he would hug me and squeeze my bum even when I was an adult.”

Lizzie said the abuse began in the 80s but when she was 11 years old and in secondary school during the 90s the rape began. She recalls how it was happening “quite a lot” because her mum used to work night times.

“Once I even tried to run away from my house because I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “I wanted to tell my mum for years and years and I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her.

“When I would hear him going up the stairs to my room I was scared – my heart started racing and all I wanted to do was to jump out of the window.”

Although her evil dad stopped the sexual abuse when she was in her mid-teens, he regularly begged her not to tell anyone when she visited her parents.

However, in 2011 her parents divorced after a burglary at their home led to the discovery of his laptop — which contained over 8,500 child porn images. Pethig admitted 17 charges of making indecent images and two of possessing indecent images and video, but he was spared an immediate prison sentence at Mold Crown Court.

Lizzie said that at that point she felt compelled to tell her mother about the abuse, and at the age of 42 — over 30 years since the abuse first started — she did.

“My mum swore and she said ‘are you strong enough to tell the police?’ and I said ‘yes let’s do it’. The police came straight around it went to the CID [Criminal Investigation Department].

“My mum always knew there was something wrong about him. She said to me she wouldn’t have let anything happen to me if she had known. But when you are a kid you believe when your father says you will never see your mother again.”

In February 2023 Pethig was charged with 15 indecent assaults, three rapes, an assault by penetration and what would have been charged at the time as attempting to commit a serious sexual assault.

The judge handed down a sentence of 19 years, made up of an 18-year custodial element and a 12-month extended licence period.

“Mum died just before the court case so she’s never seen what happened,” said Lizzie. “I have got all I wanted. I’ve got him locked up but it doesn’t take away all the memories. It takes a lot of flashbacks. I self harm and I tried killing myself twice.”

Lizzie said despite feeling like justice has been made, she still has nightmares about him all the time. She continued: “He was horrible. It’s been hard to me. I have written poetry books about the abuse, my self harm is to overcome the trauma and now I’ve started therapy and hopefully that will help the night terrors.”

Being involved with men has been a difficulty to Lizzie, who also blames her dad for never having had the chance to build a family. She also believes her dad caused her to develop epilepsy, which has consequently stopped her from working as a chef.

She said: “I feel like my father took me away my chance of having a family. He has ruined my life. I believe my epilepsy is related to the stress he caused me. I used to love my job that’s all I ever wanted to do, but he took that away from me.”