Dad raped me for 4 years but mum took him back and says God wants me to forgive him

Becky Herber

Little Becky Herbert ­suffered four years of almost nightly rape by her ­paedophile father as she clung in terror to her teddy bear.

But she told the Sunday People her devoutly Christian mum Mandy Manning has taken him back – and has urged her to forgive the monster.

Horrified Becky, now 20, believes a hardline evangelical church persuaded Mandy to rekindle her relationship with twisted David Manning.

Manning, who also claims to be a Christian, repeatedly crept into her room to molest her – groping her from the age of nine and turning to rape when she turned 11.

Traumatised Becky said she tried to hang herself when she was 15.

Her dad was jailed for nine years after his crimes came to light.


But Manning, 47, was freed after serving half of his sentence and has been spotted back at the family home.
Mandy, also 47, allegedly believes God wants both her and Becky to forgive him.

Officials gave Manning’s return the green light ­despite two of Becky’s siblings still living at home.

Becky, of Plymouth, Devon, said: “I love my mum but she’s told me that the past is the past and the Bible says I should forgive those who have sinned against me.

“I can never forgive the man who did this to me – never. He ­completely destroyed me.

"I still wake in the night, shaking and drenched in sweat.


"I’m not sure I can bear to have a baby since he showed me the evil an innocent child can suffer.”

Sales assistant Becky, who uses bakery worker Mandy’s ­maiden name to avoid being linked to her ­attacker, spent her childhood reading the Bible and ­going to Christian holiday camps. She was told sex before marriage was a sin – while living in fear of falling pregnant by her evil dad.

She recalled: “Every month I felt sick with worry.

“But who would believe the word of a little girl against that of a man who read the Bible and went to church on Sundays?”


Becky retains fond childhood memories of her mum. She said: “I loved nothing more than going on shopping trips with her and she made such a fuss of me when it was my birthday.”

But factory worker Manning shattered her happiness when her body began to mature aged nine.
“He would grope my chest and I hated it,” she said. “He told me he was just checking I was developing properly. I didn’t know any better, so I accepted it.”

When Becky was 11 her dad raped her for the first time while Mandy was at work.

She remembered: “I was on the bed playing with my teddies. Before I knew what was happening, he’d pulled my trousers down.

“I didn’t understand what rape was but I knew what he was doing was wrong. I begged him to stop but he didn’t listen.


"Afterwards I was in agony and shaking. I pulled my quilt over my head and hugged my teddy.”

Becky suffered in silence for the next four years.

“I’d wake up in the middle of the night to find him lying on top of me,” she said. “I begged him not to rape me but he told me it was our little secret.

“It affected every aspect of my life. I wanted to die. One day I got my school tie and wrapped it around my neck in the playground. I was wondering if I could reach to hang myself from the school gates.

“A friend stopped me but I didn’t tell her what was wrong.” She finally cracked aged 15 while at a Christian camp in Cornwall.

Becky said: “We were singing hymns when I burst into tears and ran off.

"A friend followed me but I couldn’t find the words to tell her so I wrote it down. She showed it to a camp leader and I was driven to a police station.”


Manning admitted seven sex ­offences, including rape, at Plymouth Crown Court in 2010.

But Becky claimed: “It wasn’t long before the church pastor suggested Mum should forgive Dad.

"He said she should love her husband more than she loved her children because we would all soon grow up and leave her.

“I felt utterly betrayed. She’d visit him in prison and ask if I wanted her to give him a hug from me.

“She’d tell me I should forgive dad. She said that’s what Jesus would want. I was absolutely gobsmacked.

"The final straw came when the pastor suggested I’d made it all up ­because Dad was strict.'

“I left home. I loved my mum, but I couldn’t live with her if she wanted me to forgive my dad.”

Manning was ­released for good behaviour this year.

Becky said: “When I heard he had gone back where my siblings still live I’ve never been so ­angry. I punched a wall so hard my knuckles bled.

“How could Mum think it was safe to let them sleep under the same roof as a paedophile, no matter what the church told her?”

The Ministry of Justice said ­Manning had been assessed and could move back into the family home with immediate effect.

A court order bans him from contacting Becky until 2019.

Becky, who is engaged to her factory worker boyfriend Jeff Bridges, 35, added: “That means I can’t visit my mum.

"We can’t have a proper ­relationship until she ­accepts I can never forgive him. She has chosen my rapist over me.”

Mandy denied Manning was staying with her and claimed: “I don’t have any children and David’s not here.”

She sent Becky texts, criticising her decision to speak out against her father and “dragging up a painful episode”.


In one message she wrote: “Consider yourself an orphan.”

(Daily Mirror)