Father Drugged And Raped His Daughter From Age 15

Emma Burt, a 19-year-old teenager, revealed how her biological father Christopher Wayne Edwards, 40, repeatedly drugged and raped her for over two years in which he referred to her as his "wife". He has now been jailed for 12 years for the catalogue of sex offences.

bEmma moved in with Edwards in December 2012, at the age of 15, after a row with her mum. Edwards preceded the abuse on Emma within a month of her moving in by attacking her daily after feeding her cannabis until she passed out. By the time she escaped, Emma was addicted to amphetamines and cocaine that her father supplied her with, and she claims he raped her every single day.  

Mum-of-one Emma, from Powys, Wales, who is now free from drugs, said: "He was in and out of my life for a number of years but I was 15 when I moved in with him and the abuse started around a month or so in. 

"In the first two months of him abusing me, he would never talk about how he raped me. "He would just sort of wait until I was asleep or close to sleeping, then the drugs came into it from about three months onwards." "It got to the point where I was dependent on the drugs. I didn't have any understanding of what was going on because I was too spaced out.

"Being so reliant on the drugs caused multiple issues when I left, I've never told anyone but people started to notice that I was weird or different."

"He used to jokingly call me his wife. I was practically a wife." 

She escaped at the age of 17 after she broke down at a family party and her relatives called the police.

Emma said: "I had this way of coping with the drugs which was like another persona.

"The more drugs I took, the more I could ignore what was going on."

Her severe mental health issues led Emma to jump off a bridge in December 2014, to "put an end to all of the pain".

Emma added: "That's when I thought now I need to say something'."

Emma, who plans to set up her own business, hopes that sharing her story encourages other victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

Emma said: "That's what I am hoping by revealing everything he has done - for this to save another girl.

"I could have a daughter, and I want to speak out for a child like her and let her know that she doesn't need to go through the pain that I did."

Edwards pleaded guilty to rape, four charges of sexual activity, one charge of possessing an indecent photograph and three charges of taking indecent photographs, and supplying her with drugs.

He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and a sexual harm prevention order was made.

Judge Niclas Parry told the court: "She became utterly reliant upon your drugs. "You used drugs to facilitate the offences and took the most appalling images of her." Myles Wilson, mitigating, said Edwards' guilty pleas had prevented the victim the trauma of giving evidence.