EVIL.....!!!: Prostitute mother allowed her clients to sexually abuse her own daughters

An evil prostitute mum is facing jail for allowing clients to sexually abuse three of her daughters - driving a seven-year-old to attempt suicide. The vile woman, now a 71-year-old grandmother, was found guilty of letting a string of customers indecently assault the youngsters (stock photograph).

The girls told Plymouth Crown Court they were sometimes forced to drink their own urine and once had to eat cat food because there was nothing else to eat or drink. One victim told the court she attempted to hang herself by her dressing gown belt from the bathroom door but the knot came undone. The mother-of-seven, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on trial after denying ten counts of child cruelty between 1976 and 1988. She said that she was the victim of lies and gossip and denied that the girls had ever told her about the abuse.

But a jury found her guilty of eight of the ten charges. She was cleared of assaulting the older and middle girl by hitting them with sticks. During the trial Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said: 'This is a very sorry tale of child cruelty and sexual abuse which in some ways is almost Victorian in its bleakness. 'The prosecution say she was working as a prostitute, from time to time at any rate. She was an inadequate woman who was either unwilling or incapable of looking after them properly.

'She exposed them to dangerous men. They had complete and unfettered access.'

One of her daughters said during police interview that four men had regularly indecently touched her either in the family home in Plymouth, Devon, or in one case at a nearby flat.

She said: 'Quite a few times when punters were in the house, we were locked in the bedroom and stuff.

The girls told Plymouth Crown Court they were sometimes forced to drink their own urine and once had to eat cat food because there was nothing else to eat or drink. One victim told the court she attempted to hang herself by her dressing gown belt from the bathroom door but the knot came undone 'We had to pee in a bucket. We were in there so long that sometimes we had to drink our own pee.'

The mother appeared in the dock alongside her former friend and a babysitter at the home, 60-year-old Raymond Williams, who was convicted of two counts of sexual assault against the middle daughter. He had already admitted two counts of indecently assaulting the same girl - the charges covering multiple incidents of a less serious form of abuse. Williams, formerly of Ham, Devon, had also pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the youngest girl on a single occasion. Before sending the jury out to consider their verdicts on the pair, Recorder Stephen Parish said: 'This has been a sad story.

This is a woman with seven children by six different fathers. Three of her daughters have given evidence against their mother. It is almost Victorian in its bleakness.

Recorder Stephen Parish

'This is a woman with seven children by six different fathers. Three of her daughters have given evidence against their mother. It is almost Victorian in its bleakness.'

The court heard that he had been forced to leave his home and live in a caravan due to publicity surrounding the trial.

Mr Parish said: 'You have both been convicted of very serious offences and custody is virtually inevitable.'

Prosecutors claimed that the woman neglected her youngest three daughters and her youngest son at their three-bedroom council home on a city estate.

The three girls, all of primary school age, were regularly touched indecently and in one case raped at the home.The jury heard that police identified about half a dozen suspects, all of whom have since died.

One man, Ralph Burns, was due to stand trial for rape but died of lung cancer only two weeks before the hearing at the age of 59. The family were in frequent contact with social workers after neighbours expressed concern and the children spent time in care. But none of the daughters complained of sexual abuse until early last year.

Williams, a former crane driver, acted as a babysitter for the family. He also helped train a group of majorettes called Sapphire and Steel. The pair will be sentenced on December 22. The judge allowed the mother to return to her London home on bail for a probation officer to prepare a report. Williams was remanded in custody and will not be seen by a probation officer.