Father who raped his daughter for 20 years caught by secret recording

A father has been exposed and jailed for raping his daughter regularly for 20 years after she released a recording of him boasting about his actions. He was charged with five counts of rape which he initially denied but he was eventually convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

Raymond Prescott, 54, first attacked Layla Bell, 31, when she was just seven years old. Layla of Clifton, Nottingham, said her father would go from being her best friend this minute to being a sexual predator the next.

He often taunted her and made foul comments, including telling her the abuse was the "best sex he’d ever had"

In 2001, Layla, who is now married with four kids of her own, reported the abuse to police but soon withdrew charges, claiming relatives harassed her. So she waited until she had gathered enough evidence before she took the case up again. She described how her father would grope her while shouting: "I’m having sex with my own daughter" and told of how she opened up to her mother but she did nothing about it.

She said: "I told my mum but she wouldn’t even look at me or speak to me. I think she was more ashamed that she hadn’t known before. She believed me I think, but was in shock."

Her father tried to attack her again in December 2012, so she took advantage of that opportunity and recorded him as he confessed to his crimes. In the chilling clip, Prescott can be heard saying that she's the only one he enjoys having sex with.

"I can’t have sex with anyone else and enjoy it, so I want to have sex with you," her father's voice can be heard in the seven-minute recording.

Layla is heard telling him: “This is weird. It’s wrong and you know it. You were grabbing my arse in front of my friend.”

Layla passed the evidence to police in February 2013 and waived her right to anonymity. She told in detail how her father started to abuse her sexually when she was only 7 and would often rape her after everyone had left the house. He continued till she was 27. Prescott also taught Layla to drink, giving her alcohol from a young age. She started drinking heavily when she was only 14.

"The very first time he did it I was seven. He said he was proud of me for not wetting the bed and told me I was going to get a present. He took me into the bedroom after everyone else had gone to school and laid me down on the floor. He ran his hands up me and took my skirt off but I can’t fully recall what happened next. I blocked it out of my head because it happened at such a young age, but I knew it was very bad."

She added: "I remember he took me into his bed and performed oral sex when I must have been nine or ten. He would tell me it was our little secret and I was his special little girl."

Prescott, of Clifton, Nottingham, was charged with five counts of rape and was eventually convicted at Nottingham Crown Court. Layla expressed pleasure at the 12-year jail sentence her father got, describing it as "brilliant".