Her father was jailed for 17 years
A WOMAN has spoken out about being blindfolded and sexually abused by her father who pretended to be a string of different men.
Charlene Masterson, 32, was a teenager when she was blackmailed into performing oral sex on her father.
Charlene Masterson, 32, was a teenager when she was blackmailed into performing oral sex on her father
Charlene has since spoken out about her story widely and is now campaigning for other survivors
Her father, David Masterson, 56, was jailed for 17 years
Speaking to The Indo Daily Podcast, Charlene said the abuse started in 2007 after she received an anonymous text message from someone claiming to have incriminating information about her.
The message cautioned the then 18-year-old that if she did not perform the acts, the information would be leaked.
“I randomly got messages from a number, I didn’t know the number, and it read ‘I know what you did’, and anyone that knows me, knows I hate being in trouble, so I immediately panicked,” she said.
She was told her father, David Masterson, 56, would be fired from his role at a Dublin airport if she did not fulfil the demands.
When she went to her father for help, he told her that she would need to comply or he risked losing his job.
She said: “The one person you go to for help is your dad, and I did, and his response was ‘you’re going to have to.’ It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
Despite not ever being told what the information was Charlene said she was too “naive” at the time to try and dispute it.
She said: “It was him, so he knew I didn’t do anything, I don’t even know how he concocted this whole thing, he knew exactly what I had done, which was nothing.”
Her father’s lies and coercion meant the teenager was subjected to five years of rape and other forms of horrific sexual abuse.
Each time, she was made to wear a blindfold and listen to music while her father pretended to bring a new person into their home to molest her.
David, Charlene’s father, would then force her to perform sexual acts on him.
She said: “I remember it vividly, sitting there in whatever he had demanded I wear that night and he would be looking out the window going, ‘oh he is coming across the field.'”
“He is meant to be a stranger, so how would my father know what he looks like, and then he pretended to be downstairs and then pretending to walk the person out of the house.
“He would say ‘oh we drove him up to the mountains and he won’t come back again’, like he was trying to play the hero and the protector. After the ‘stranger’ had left he would be the doting father again.”