Stolen Innocence: A Pedophile Exposed

By Alana R. Neal

What would you do if your 9 year old came to you and confided that she had been molested for longer than she could remember? What if the perpetrator was your husband, the man who pledged his love to you everyday? This was a man who stood in church each week praising God, who went out into the community testifying to bring other families into the church. Would you break down? Fall down? Scream? The Internet and dating sites are teeming with pedophiles and sex offenders. This true account tells the story of what happened to my family when we were confronted with one of these monsters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alana R. Neal
• Release date: Sep 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781507070666

Book preview

Saving Baby Girl

This true account details what happened to my family when my nine year old daughter came to me and confided that her daddy had been molesting her for a long as she could remember. Jeff and I met on a Christian dating site on the Internet and he professed to love the Lord with all of his heart. I had been a single mother for many years and he seemed like the ideal man to be the spiritual leader in our home. I met Jeff when Cathy was three years old and after we married he asked for the honor of adopting her and giving her his name.

In retrospect, I can see how he began grooming Cathy immediately, even before we were married. After we married I moved over 800 miles away from my friends and family to be with him and his family. His parents were elderly and he convinced me that if we lived on the family property to help care for them it would make our lives much easier. Not long after we were married I began to realize that he was not the spiritual leader of the home that I had hoped he would be. Yet, I continued to pray that he would develop a stronger relationship with God and that he would be the leader of our home that I knew God desired for him to be.  

Our world fell apart when Cathy came to me and disclosed what her Daddy had been doing to her. Part of the text in this true account is taken from actual journal entries in which I chronicled what happened in the weeks and months after the sexual abuse came to light. Rather than chapter titles I use dates of actual events. Some of the account may seem repetitious, but I’ve included everything anyway to illustrate how difficult and time consuming it can be to get sex abuse cases prosecuted.  

It is my sincere hope that by sharing Cathy’s story someone who is reading this will be encouraged to reach out for help. If there is nothing else that you take away from this account please understand how important it is for adults and caregivers to stand behind and support children when they confide that they have been victims of heinous acts such as those detailed in this book. You will discover in the journal details that the legal system is not always on the side of the victim. We had to put our lives on hold for over a year and a half, as I fought tooth and nail for this crime to be punished.

July 18, 2008

The kids and I were so excited to visit my mother before school started. It was July 18 and we would have two whole weeks with her before having to return home and get my classroom ready for my students. Jeff didn't come because he had used up all of his vacation time for an illness that happened earlier in the summer.

The first glimpse of the Blue Ridge Mountains always took my breathe away and this trip would be no exception. I thought about the times that we had made this trip in the last six years - nearly 20. Seeing the mountains always quickened my heart and put a longing in me for something that I could never quite put a name to.

Mom loved seeing us. She would always say Don't forget - you have precious cargo. You drive carefully over those mountains. She always wanted to make sure that I protected my kids. I thought that I always had, but was about to find out that my baby girl had become the victim of the ultimate betrayal.

July 26, 2008

We had been a Mom's house for eight nights and she had slept with Cathy each night on the foldout couch. Mom complained that her back was hurt and asked if Cathy could sleep with me this night. I said of course and went on to bed.

When Cathy came to bed it seemed like any other night that she would have crawled into bed with me half asleep. She was complaining about catching the tail end of the scary movie, ‘The Lepracaun’ and I was kind of chastising her for that, because those movies always give her the creeps and she has a difficult time sleeping. She got out of bed to use the bathroom adjoining the bedroom that we were sleeping in.

When she came out of the bathroom, she came around to my side of the bed and got right down in my face. I had almost dozed off to sleep when I realized that she was there.

She said, Mama, can I ask you something? What is it called when someone in your family fools with you?

I was half asleep and didn't even realize what she was asking so I replied, What do you mean by fools with you?

She said You know when the man puts his mouth on you down there and makes you put your mouth on him.

I shot straight up in bed, demanding to know where she had heard such things. I