Abuse victim struggling to kick attacker out of home has to pay his £61k bill
A sex abuse victim who lost a legal battle to keep her abuser out of her former family home now fears losing her own house after struggling to pay his £61,000 legal bill.
Kirsty Easthope was abused by her mother's partner Arthur Hepple, 84, for over a decade before she reported him to police in 2014.
He was given a suspended sentence for his assault on Kirsty, 52, and later jailed for a sex attack on a different woman and her teenage daughter.
After his release, a judge ordered Kirsty to let him move back in to the £300,000 bungalow because her late mum stated he could live there until he died in her will.
And she was hit with a bill of over £100,000 as she was ordered to pay £61,000 legal costs on top of her own fees of £40,000.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
Kirsty's husband Colin, 50, has sold a two-bedroom terraced house he had bought to be renovated and the couple crowdfunded to raise the money.
Kirsty Easthope has to pay her abuser's legal bill (Lee McLean/SWNS)But they now have around £35,000 left to pay Hepple, and Kirsty says she lives in constant fear that bailiffs will take her four-bedroom detached house in York.
She said: "I don't know where we are expected to get the money from because we don't have it.
"The judge doesn't care. We are terrified that bailiffs coming round because they just seize what they can. It's a fear of mine and I just never thought I would be living like this.
"If the bailiffs take my car, then I won't be able to work because one of the conditions of my job is that I have a car. I would lose my job then and it's a completely vicious cycle which I can't bare thinking about especially with the current climate as it is.
"It's like you're living in fear because the court has so much power. I'm scared of them taking my house and never thought I would be in this position.
"It definitely would be like losing another house to him, if we lost it."
And Kirsty says she 'just wants to be free' of her abuser but she can't, because he is 'back under her nose'.
Sex offender Arthur Peter Hepple (SWNS)She added: "It's never ending because he's now back there under our noses. I'm still not free of him and I just want to be free of him and leave me alone.
"But now he's back there living in my property."
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
Kirsty's dad Alan Barnett bought the three-bedroom bungalow in York with Irma in 1983. He sadly died at the age of 71 in 1996.
Irma then met Hepple through friends and introduced him to Kirsty in 1998, before he moved into the bungalow in 1999.
Hepple first started assaulting Kirsty after Irma was diagnosed with dementia in 2003 so she never knew that her own daughter was being abused.
Kirsty never reported him as she feared the police wouldn't take her seriously and thought they would have 'laughed her out of the building' if she did try.
But Hepple then let himself into Kirsty's house in 2013 and assaulted her daughter by sneaking up on her when she got out of the shower and tried to pull a towel off her.
She reported him to cops and he was put on the sex offenders register, but was later jailed in 2017 for sex attack on another woman and her teenage daughter.
Before he was jailed, Hepple lived in the bungalow owned by Kirsty's mum Irma Barnett, who died aged 81 in 2013.
A clause in Irma's will meant that although Kirsty owned the property, Hepple would be allowed to live in the home until he died.
Kirsty's mum Irma Barnett and Arthur Hepple (Courtesy Kirsty Easthope / SWNS)When he went to jail, Kirsty rented the property out but when Hepple was released in October 2018, he contested his right to return to the detached bungalow.
They were also forced to furnish the property and Hepple moved back into the property in January this year.
Kirsty said: "We had to make it available for him and handed the keys to the solicitors, so he's moved in and is there now.
"He provided a list of what he wanted in the house and we've had a letter from his solicitor just being petty, saying that there was a remote control missing.
"But it has to come to a stop at one point, he can't keep saying what he wants when he told the court what he wanted.
"We don't know how he's looking after it, he could be destroying it but we just don't know."
Kirsty said that when Hepple was jailed, the property was left empty, and she was advised she should rent it out by solicitors.
When he came out of prison, she claims she was also advised by solicitors to not permit him to enter it but to offer suitable alternative accommodation.
He was offered it three times but refused each offer, insisting he return to the property she owned.
But after a nearly three-year fight over the house, Kirsty feels Hepples continues to 'cause so much grief' to her and her family.
The mum-of-three said: "It just makes us feel sick really, he doesn't deserve it.
"I don't get how one man can cause so much grief to a family and not care. It's just beyond comprehension really.
"I wouldn't be able to live with myself, let alone show my face. The judge's feelings on it are that the will is the will and the mitigating factors don't seem to matter."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
