Danielle Keenan listened to the sound of her door creek open. Light poured into the room for a moment before disappearing behind a silhouette.
Her body froze as her father climbed into bed with her. It was that time of night again. At seven-years-old, she never understood what he was doing. She just remembered that it hurt.
“He said if I told anyone, I would have to shoot him and the army would make me watch,” the now 18-year-old told the Manchester Evening News. “But I just knew he was my dad and I loved him because he was my dad.”
Danielle remembers it was around Christmas time when the abuse started. The teenager, from Oldham, remembers feeling ill after catching a stomach bug. She claims she was being sick into a bucket when her father – Michael Keenan – sexually assaulted her for the first time.
“I thought I was being delusional,” Danielle said. “He made me touch him. I had underwear on but he would grind up against the back of me. A couple of weeks later, he came back into my room and did it again.”
Now an adult, Danielle, from Royton, has waived her right to anonymity so she can tell her story openly for the very first time. She claims the attacks began a year after her family moved to Germany. Keenan had been stationed there as a private in the army at the time.
Danielle claims the abuse worsened when her mother, who has asked to remain anonymous, went into labour with twins. She caught an infection and was in hospital for several weeks, meaning Danielle was left alone with Keenan at home.
“He said he was lonely because mum wasn’t there and it started properly every night,” Danielle said. “Mum went into labour and got quite ill. Before he went to work, he would start doing it every morning and night. He would come into my room and ask me to get into bed with him.
“We lived in Germany and I was away from all my family and friends. We were constantly moving all the time, and that’s one of the things he was banking on. I didn’t have anyone else permanent other than my mum.”
When Danielle was nine-years-old, her father raped her. The horrific attack happened in the basement when Danielle was asked to clean out the rabbit hutch.
“He followed me downstairs,” she added. “We had a pull-out sofa because it was a kids’ room. I didn’t know what it was, it just hurt. He said if I told anyone, no one would believe me and I would ruin the family.”
Danielle, who now studies health and social care at college, says she tried to tell others about the abuse but “couldn’t find the words” to describe what had happened to her.
It wasn’t until her mother, 38, noticed her daughter had become withdrawn that Danielle was finally able tell her everything – using teddy bears to show what her dad had done.
“One night, he was in my room and in bed with me as normal,” Danielle claimed. “My mum came upstairs to check on me and she looked at me and could see on my face that something wasn’t right.
“I had to use two teddies to show her. I told her everything after showing her. After that, I knew he was lying and they would believe me.
“He denied it. He kept saying it never happened and that I was lying. But when my mum looked at me, he turned and said, ‘She’s telling the truth’.”
Speaking exclusively to the M.E.N, Danielle‘s mother can recall the moment she found out what had been happening to her daughter – just by looking into her terrified eyes. “He had come home from work and he was late. I was quite annoyed at the time, but everything was fine and I put the kids to bed,” she said.
“I finished my book and I didn't know where my husband had gone. I thought he had gone outside for a cigarette. When I looked outside, he wasn't there.
“Leading up to this, I had already been concerned about Danielle. I had spoken to him about it and he said she was probably just adjusting to the move and missing her friends.
“I went upstairs to find him and Danielle’s door was cracked open. He was lay down with her and I didn’t see anything, but I saw Danielle’s face and she wasn't there. It wasn’t my little girl there. There was no life – nothing.”
Danielle‘s mother hesitated in the doorway for a second before the harrowing realisation set in. “I swear to God, for two seconds, I don’t even know how long it was, I was arguing with myself in my head,” she said as she began to cry. “I thought, ‘This can’t be it.’
“He started play fighting with her because she sat up on her knees and pointed at me. She kept looking from me to him while he tried to play fight with her. It was so staged; I’m not stupid.
“He was waiting for me to leave first, and obviously I wasn’t going to. As he walked out of the room, I shut the door behind him.
“I looked at Danielle and said, ‘Has daddy done something?’ and she said, ‘Yes’. I asked her to tell me and she said she didn’t know how.
“I gave her two teddies and asked her to show me. She put them together and I knew. She touched my face and said, ‘Are you okay mum? Is daddy going to get shot?’“
The mum-of-five still struggles with guilt every single day. “The worst part is, I feel so guilty,“ she added. “It went on for so long and I never knew. His friends were messaging me and crying on the phone saying he wasn’t like that and he was all about his kids.
“I was groomed by him because it was all a lie. I lived a lie for 13 years. I met him when I was 18 - I thought I knew everything about him.
“When I first met him, he had a son that was 10-months-old. That was one of the reasons I was attracted to him because I thought he was such a good dad. I thought this man was someone great to have children with. I’m not a bad mum. I didn’t know what was going on at all.”
Keenan, who was 34 at the time, was arrested that night after Danielle‘s mother alerted military police. Keenan walked out of their home, which sparked a police search, before he eventually handed himself into a barracks. In court, he admitted 10 child sex offences and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2015. Then, on New Year's Eve of that year, Danielle messaged her grandmother on an iPad and told her she had been raped by her father. The police were immediately alerted.
Following a trial at the Military Court Centre in Colchester, Keenan was found guilty of rape of a child under 13. He was sentenced to 11 years and six months imprisonment.
The dad-of-six, who served with the 3rd Battalion RLC, could be released next month on parole. Danielle‘s family are fighting for an exclusion zone to be put in place near their home to prevent Keenan from contacting them – but Danielle says she is “terrified” at the thought of her rapist being free once more.
“It’s alright because he’s in prison at the moment but I’m terrified,” Danielle said, as she became emotional. “When he gets out, how can I be one hundred per cent we are safe?”
Danielle now suffers from PTSD and insomnia as a result of the abuse. While she’s taken part in rehabilitation programmes and continues to have therapy, she will carry the trauma of what happened to her for the rest of her life.
“I struggled with PSTD and have done for a while,” she added. “It’s definitely impacted me.
“I barely sleep at night and I get flashbacks and panic attacks all the time. If someone touches me, even on the shoulder or the arm without me knowing, I freak out. I’m still in therapy. I’ve been in therapy for eight years.
“He could be getting out next month and I just want everyone to know who he is so no other child can get hurt like I was.”
READ NEXT:
