1. DAILYMIRROR THURSDAY 23.10.20146 DM1ST
‘Sexvictims
failedbyIRA’
IRA sex abuse victims were
“let down” during the Trou-
bles, Sinn Fein leader Gerry
Adams has admitted.
One victim Mairia Cahill
has claimed she was raped
at 16 by a suspected IRA
member in Belfast in 1997
and the IRA covered it up.
Mr Adams told the Irish
Parliament: “The IRA was
ill-equipped to deal with
such matters and I want to
apologise to those victims.
“Those with complaint
should come forward.”
Three court cases linked
toMsCahill’sclaimsarenow
being reviewed.
whoclaimedherhusbandwasbeingforced
to go to court in a vegetative state.
He said: “When I went to their home
shetoldmehewascriticallyillinhospital.
For all I know he’d popped out to Tesco.
“I would like the police to fully investi-
gate her role in this case and to see
if she should be prosecuted.”
But a police spokesman said:
“She is not facing charges.”
Knight who admitted theft,
forgery and fraud, arriving in
court in a wheelchair, will be
sentenced next month.
BY RICHARD SMITH
MP SEEKING PROBE
ON COMA CON MRSAN MP fooled by coma conman Alan
Knight yesterday called for the police to
investigate his wife’s role in the scam.
Knight, 47, spent two years posing as a
quadriplegic to avoid justice for stealing
£41,000 from an elderly neighbour.
But he was finally caught out
after being pictured out shopping
and driving home from a holiday.
Swansea West MP Geraint
Davies said he had been taken
in by Knight’s wife Helen, 33,
CALL Helen Knight yesterday
HUSBAND
THE FIEND
THE HOUSE
court this week, taxi driver Churchill
admittedtheattack.NowbraveJune–who
suffered horrific injuries including broken
bones and a deep four-inch chest wound
– has told of her terrifying ordeal.
Describing the attack as “like a horror
movie”,themum-of-sixsaid:“Ithoughthe
was about to cut my head off.”
She added: “I felt like I was going to die.
There was so much blood running from
my chest and neck. I could feel my life
draining away. I thought my time was up
– he could have killed me at
any moment.”
June had filed for divorce
against her 52-year-old
husband of 10 years. They
were living at the same
home but were staying in
separate parts of the house.
Churchilltookherhostage
onlyhoursaftermagistrates
hadbailedhimforstrangling
and punching June the
day before.
He ignored rules to stay
awayfromherandsmashed
BY JOHN SIDDLE
AMUMfearedshewouldbebeheaded
by her “monster” husband after he
locked her in their home for three
days and attacked her with an axe.
David Churchill beat, tortured and
slashed wife June, 52, across the throat in
the horror because she had tried to leave
him over his repeated violence.
He had just been bailed over another
attack on her when he burst into their
house as she lay in bed. Then
he bound, blindfolded and
gagged her and began
swinging the large axe.
He stabbed her and cut
herbackwithaStanleyknife
in a bloody 72-hour hell.
ChurchillevensentJune’s
children phone messages
pretending to be her.
In a desperate attempt to
escape she wrote “Help” in
window condensation,
beforehetookheroutofthe
house and torched it. In
There was
so much
blood, he
could have
killed me at
any time
TORTURED JUNETELLS
OFHERHOSTAGEHORROR
Beast Churchill admitted the horror
Churchill torched it after onslaught