Daughter speaks out after lecturer father who raped her for years and threatened to dissolve her body in acid bath if she told anyone is jailed for 20 years

• Kim Chown, 53, was abused by her father from the age of 14 until she was 20
• Former university lecturer Francis Beaumont, 79, jailed for 20 years for rape
• Mrs Chown waives her right to anonymity to encourage others to come forward

Former university lecturer Francis Beaumont, 79, was convicted of five offences of rape and jailed for 20 years

A depraved father who subjected his teenage daughter to years of humiliating sexual abuse and threatened to dissolve her body in an acid bath has been jailed for 20 years.

Former university lecturer Francis Beaumont, 79, was convicted of five offences of rape against Kim Chown when she was a child.

Mrs Chown, 53, endured years of torture and was forced to have two abortions after her father impregnated her as a teenager.

She was raped multiple times in Yorkshire and at home in Guiseley.

Each time, Mrs Chown was threatened with death if she spoke out.

Leeds Crown Court heard Mrs Chown suffered years of physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of her father.

Jurors were told Beaumont, a university lecturer in histology, began the abuse when he took his daughter to live in Kenya.

Beaumont often plied the youngster with alcohol which led to her battling with alcoholism for years.

Beaumont continued to abuse his daughter when they returned to live in Guiseley, near Leeds, West Yorks, and raped her up until the age of 20.

Beaumont, of Brackenwood Green, Gledhow, Leeds, was found guilty of five offences of rape in the UK, between 1979 and 1985.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said Beaumont could only be sentenced for offences committed under English law, but described the abuse as ‘a campaign of rape.’

The judge said: ‘You are an intelligent man and you knew perfectly well what you were doing.

‘It was calculated by you to degrade her, to make your own daughter compliant to you and make your own daughter submit to your sexual demands.’

Mrs Chown, 53, is speaking out to try and help other rape victims come forward when they are attacked by their parents. Her father was jailed for 20 years for attacking her

Mrs Chown, who gave evidence at the trial, described how she was ‘petrified’ of her father as he threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the abuse.

Beaumont threatened to dissolve her body in sulphuric acid or dump her remains in the Kenyan bush if she told anyone.

She took the threat seriously as she knew he had access to chemicals during the course of his work. Beaumont also kept a plastic carrier bag under his pillow and threatened to use it to suffocate her.

The jury found Beaumont guilty of a rape offence when his victim was aged 14 and was attending boarding school on the east coast of Yorkshire.

Beaumont went to visit her then took her to a hotel where the sex offences took place.

The final offences took place at his home in Guiseley in 1985.

The trial heard Mrs Chown told her mother, by then estranged from Beaumont, about the abuse in the same year.

A report was made to the police at the time but Beaumont took her to a solicitor and made her sign a retraction.

Mrs Chown found the courage to go to police again in 2015 and report her father.

Now, she is waiving her right to anonymity in the hope of becoming an ambassador for victims of similar abuse.

She said: ‘I am one of the stronger surviving victims of childhood sexual abuse inflicted by a father of his daughter.

‘Not many people in my situation get to this point in their lives.

‘Many take it as a secret to their graves, others take their own lives.’ 

 

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