Sins of the father

'One of Ireland's most powerful campaigners' The Kavanagh Sisters I look back now and see that I never stood a chance. It's hard when you realise your whole childhood was taken away. I never got the chance to be a child.' Shaneda Daly was only four when her father started grooming her. For nearly 15 years, he would go on to sexually abuse his daughter every day. The emotional and physical toll was immense and, eventually, her ex-army and prison officer father admitted to his family what he had been doing. Leaving home for only a year to get help, he was welcomed back 'a changed man'. With no choice but to accept it, Shaneda lived alongside him again only for him to try and abuse her once more. After realising she had no choice but to leave home, Shaneda finally reclaimed her power by standing up to the man who destroyed her childhood and contacted the police. Decades later, in 2011, she watched as her father was convicted of 227 counts of abuse. Shaneda now fights as a campaigner for other victims and is bravely telling her story fully for the first time: the story of a survivor.