A YOUNG woman has spoken out about the moment her mum walked in on her dad raping her when she was nine years old.
Danielle Keenan, 18, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was sexually abused by her solider father in a two-year reign of terror while her family lived abroad.
Michael Keenan, a dad-of-six who served with the 3rd Battalion RLC, was living with his family on an army barracks while stationed in Germany.
When Danielle was seven years old, she was sexually assaulted for the first time, but she was too young to understand what was happening.
She told the Manchester Evening News: “He made me touch him. I had underwear on but he would grind up against the back of me. A couple of weeks later, he came back into my room and did it again.”
Her dad – a private – told his daughter that if she told anyone they wouldn’t believe her and the army would shoot him.
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The abuse escalated, and Michael took full advantage of his daughter when she had to stay in hospital for several weeks with an infection after giving birth to twins.
She said: “He would start doing it every morning and night. He would come into my room and ask me to get into bed with him.”
One day she was asked to go to the family’s basement to clean out the rabbit hutch.
In a room that was supposed to be a place for the kids to enjoy, Michael raped his daughter for the first time.
She said: “I didn’t know what it was, it just hurt. He said if I told anyone, no one would believe me and I would ruin the family.”
Danielle’s mum, who asked not to be named, noticed her daughter’s behaviour changing.
But when she confronted Michael about her concerns, he told her that he suspected Danielle was just missing her friends and adjusting to the move.
The 38-year-old was alerted to something sinister going on when she found her husband on Danielle’s bed one evening.
She said: “I went upstairs to find him and Danielle’s door was cracked open.
“He was lay down with her and I didn’t see anything, but I saw Danielle’s face and she wasn’t there. It wasn’t my little girl there. There was no life – nothing.
“I swear to God, for two seconds, I don’t even know how long it was, I was arguing with myself in my head. I thought, ‘This can’t be it’.
“He started play fighting with her because she sat up on her knees and pointed at me. She kept looking from me to him while he tried to play fight with her. It was so staged; I’m not stupid.”
Michael waited for Danielle’s mum to leave but she stood in the doorway until he got up and she shut the door behind him.
She asked Danielle “has daddy done something?” and her daughter told her “yes”.
The emotional mum recalls: “I gave her two teddies and asked her to show me. She put them together and I knew. She touched my face and said, ‘Are you okay mum? Is daddy going to get shot?’“
I barely sleep at night and I get flashbacks and panic attacks all the time. If someone touches me, even on the shoulder or the arm without me knowing, I freak out. I’m still in therapy. I’ve been in therapy for eight years.
Danielle Keenan
In the years since, the mum-of-five has lived with guilt, saying she was groomed by him too and their 13 years together were “a lie”.
She said: “I met him when I was 18 – I thought I knew everything about him.”
Danielle’s mum reported her husband to military police and he eventually Michael handed himself into the barracks.
He admitted 10 child sex offences and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2015.
Keenan was found guilty of rape of a child under 13 following a trial at Military Court Centre in Colchester.
He was sentenced to 11 years and six months imprisonment but could be released next month on parole.
Danielle‘s family are fighting for an exclusion zone to be put in place near their home to prevent Keenan from contacting them – but Danielle says she is “terrified” at the thought of her rapist dad being free once more.
Danielle said: “It’s alright because he’s in prison at the moment but I’m terrified. When he gets out, how can I be one hundred per cent sure we are safe?”
The teenager now suffers from PTSD and insomnia as a result of the abuse. While she’s taken part in rehabilitation programmes and continues to have therapy, she will carry the trauma of what happened to her for the rest of her life.
Danielle said: “I struggled with PTSD and have done for a while,” she added. “It’s definitely impacted me.
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“I barely sleep at night and I get flashbacks and panic attacks all the time. If someone touches me, even on the shoulder or the arm without me knowing, I freak out. I’m still in therapy. I’ve been in therapy for eight years.
“He could be getting out next month and I just want everyone to know who he is so no other child can get hurt like I was.”
Embrace CVOV supports young people and their families recover from their experiences with crime. Anyone who’d like to donate can do so here.
