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"My father is an upright pillar of the community.

"He reads the lessons in church on a Sunday morning and since retiring from a high-power management job 10 years ago, he has worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau.

"He has high moral standards - for instance, he still finds divorce hard to tolerate. He votes Conservative - always have, always will - and is of above average intelligence.

"If you met him you would find him pleasant, gregarious, attractive (even at his advanced age) and a good conversationalist.

"None of this alters the fact that he was somehow able to sexually abuse his little son and daughter over a period of nine years without showing any grief, remorse or seeming understanding of the damage that he was causing them, physically and emotionally.

"He still absolutely denies it, and acts like the injured party when challenged about it.

"He played 'divide and rule' and encouraged my seven year-old brother to join in with abusing me, turning him from already damaged victim into more damaged perpetrator.

"I am not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me.

"I'm getting there, thanks, but to alert you to the fact that the nice man next door, at church, at work can be plausible, polite and socially acceptable on the surface, but an abuser in his own home.

"Looks and actions can be deceiving. Believe me."

That same survivor has also used poetry as a way of dealing with her ordeal:

If I'd broken my leg
You'd have been round to help
But you didn't come near
You didn't want to hear
What I have to say

If I'd developed cancer
You'd have been here for me all the way
But you didn't come near
You didn't want to hear
What I have to say

If I'd had a nervous breakdown
You'd have come to support
But you didn't come near
You didn't want to hear
What I have to say

But I had incest
So you've been nowhere near
You don't want to hear
Thanks a lot
Happy Mother's Day

I was sad
You said I was bad
It's all down to you, Dad.