KEY POINTS
- The father drank often and sexually abused his daughter nightly from May to November 2018
- His daughter, now 16, said her father also took pictures of her after he had stripped her
- The teen hopes to encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to report what they’ve suffered
A 16-year-old girl in Wales is speaking out on the horrific ordeal she suffered at the hands of her biological father when she was 11 years old, following the sentencing of her dad this week.
Elizabeth Price, from Ystalyfera, near Swansea, was sexually abused by her father, Phillip Price, every night between May and November 2018, when she was temporarily in his care at his home in Manselton, Swansea, Wales Online reported.
Elizabeth said that her 61-year-old father, who was sentenced to prison for the abuse Friday at Cardiff Crown Court, drank heavily every day and that she stayed in the same room with him during that period.
“He would sexually assault me at night when he thought I was sleeping, but I was awake every time because I was too scared to go to sleep. It happened every single night without fail while I was living with him for just under six months. He would take pictures of me as well after he had stripped me and when he thought I was asleep,” the teenager was quoted as saying by the outlet.
Elizabeth said she was physically unable to shout at him to stop because she was too scared. According to the teen, her fear caused her to stay awake “for weeks on end,” and she would only sleep when he passed out drunk.
She said she told her school about her father’s excessive drinking on more than one occasion, hoping that her social worker would be notified and that she would be removed from his home. But she said nothing was done about it.
Elizabeth eventually went back to live with her mother after her six-month stay with her father, but she carried the fear of that ordeal for the next four years.
“I didn’t tell anyone for four years because I was scared he would find me and do it all over again,” she said. “I literally didn’t want to be here anymore because of what he had done to me.”
She said she also kept the abuse to herself for four years due to fear that no one would believe her, and this took a toll on her mental health.
But she has now chosen to open up on her ordeal in order to encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to report the crimes committed against them and help them feel less alone.
“I think it’s important to speak out about it because I hid it for so many years and it ate me up from the inside out. I just want people to know that they are not the only ones going through something like this because I struggled for years with my mental health for not telling anyone about it,” she stated.
After she told her mother Tracy about the abuse in August 2022, her mom informed police, and her father Phillip was arrested. Elizabeth said she told police officers the location of the camera Phillip used to take pictures of her years earlier.
At the time, Phillip was already on a sexual harm prevention order, which was issued to him in 2019 after it was discovered he was in possession of child pornography, according to prosecutor Harry Baker.
On Friday, Phillip was sentenced to a custodial period of five years with an extended license period of eight years. He was also handed a 12-month concurrent sentence as well as a two-year concurrent sentence for breaching his prevention of sexual harm order.
In addition to these, he was given two concurrent sentences of six months and two months for the possession of child pornography.
“For four years, I kept a secret no child should ever have to keep. For four years, my mother watched helplessly as I went downhill, and for four years, I was horrible to my siblings for trying to be nice to me for things you did to me while I was just 11. As a father, you had the job of protecting me from monsters, but you turned out to be the very monster I needed protecting from,” Elizabeth told the court while reading out her victim impact statement.
She continued, “I don’t know why you abused me and no apology will ever be enough. You are nothing but a monster and I will never forgive you. You no longer get to be my dad.”