Betrayed by mom ‘She gave me pills so I wouldn’t get pregnant for my stepfather’

A 32-year-old mother has made the shocking allegation that her own mother knew she was being sexually abused by her stepfather, and, instead of protecting her, she gave her birth-control pills to prevent her from becoming pregnant.

The woman, who is being identified as Anne*, said the alleged abuse began when she was just 10 years old.

“I remember she gave me the pill. I don’t remember what colour the pill was, but they were small; very, very small, and she said I should take the pill because she don’t want me to get pregnant for my stepfather,” Anne said.

The disturbing chapter in her life resurfaced after the recent abduction and rape of a 10-year-old schoolgirl in Clarendon triggered painful memories of her own childhood.

For years, Anne said she kept silent. But hearing about another child allegedly being violated at the same age she was forced her to break that silence.

“I just felt like I have to talk now,” she told THE STAR. “I have three daughters and if something like that should happen, I am going to deal with it filled with darkness.”

Anne recalled growing up in a small one-room house after her parents separated.

“We were living in a one-room [house] with two beds. My mother met this man who came to live with us. He used to come in late [at nights], and [when] I am sleeping, I always feel this hand come over and touching me,” she said.

Seeking protection, she told her mother about the unsettling encounters. However, instead of receiving comfort, support or intervention, she said her disclosure was met with silence.

“I said, ‘Mommy, I keep on feeling somebody touching me at night time’. And she never answered me. She did not answer me. She never rushed me, she never questioned me, she never did nothing,” Anne said.

According to Anne, the situation only worsened.

She alleged that her mother began exposing her to pornographic videos, something she could not fully understand as a child.

“At the time, there were CDs and DVDs,” Anne said, adding that with age she came to realise “it was intentional.”

“She would lock me in the room and turn on the porn and told me to watch it. ... She started putting it in every time, especially on days when I didn’t get to go to school,” she said.

Anne claimed the abuse escalated over time.

“It started there and then the man started coming in the night-time, and then it started getting worse. The man started to come beside me naked or something, and he was telling me something nice.”

She further alleged that her mother’s actions went beyond ignoring what was happening and that there were times when she appeared to facilitate interactions involving the man.

“My mother used to trouble me, like [say] ‘go inside’, and next thing she start to hold the man and put the man in front of me private,” she shared.

According to Anne, what began when she was 10 eventually became a near-nightly ordeal for the next four years. Fear kept her silent and her home became the place she feared most.