Rapist's daughter says Birmingham authorities 'wanted case brushed under the carpet'

Carvel Bennett was sentenced to 11 years in prison after the daughter he conceived by rape came forward

A woman born after her father raped her mother said the police and other authorities wanted the case "brushed under the carpet".

Carvel Bennett, 74, was jailed in August for raping the victim when she was 13 in Birmingham in the 1970s.

His daughter said the authorities ignored her five-year campaign as she was not the victim.

Police said officers met with her mother in 2019 and the successful prosecution followed its investigation.

Bennett's daughter, who was adopted as a baby, first discovered how she had been conceived from birth records when she turned 18.

She told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour she decided to try to get justice in 2012 when other high-profile historical abuse cases, such as paedophile predator Jimmy Savile, were in the news.

Social services records from the 1970s named Bennett as the father, recorded the parents' ages and the allegation of rape.

The daughter, who had been adopted by white parents from birth, said the shock of learning that was partly "seeing people weren't doing anything".

She said she approached Birmingham City Council in 2014 but they "were not particularly interested".

Over the next five years she said doors were similarly shut in her face by other authorities, including police and the local safeguarding board.

'How am I not a victim?'

"Every time I picked up the phone or email to child protection experts, solicitors, MPs, people either ignored me or you're hearing 'you're not the victim'," she said.

"I was separated from my culture, my identity, history, the impact on my mental health, my sense of self - how am I not a victim?"

In 2015, she even traced Carvel Bennett to his house in Birmingham and secretly recorded him on a hidden camera.

She said she asked police to pursue a so-called "victimless prosecution" in a bid to protect her mother. Despite the evidence, she said officers were unwilling to take her case on.

However, in August 2019, within days of her story being broadcast on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show, police visited her mother, who subsequently made a statement, allowing the prosecution to go ahead.

Until that point, the daughter said West Midlands Police's approach had been "hostile and punitive".

'Called to account'

During sentencing, Judge Martin Hurst said Bennett's crime had destroyed two lives and the daughter was unquestionably as much of a victim as her mother.

The daughter is now campaigning for the children of rape crimes to be legally recognised as victims.

She also wants the city council and West Midlands Police "called to account" after they "didn't even look at the evidence".

"They want people like me to be quiet, to be brushed under the carpet," she said.

West Midlands Police said officers met with the victim on 11 August and discussed the case with her. It said she wanted to remain anonymous and "does not want us to enter into a dialogue about her case in public".

Birmingham Children's Trust, which has run children's social care services in the city since 2018, said it would be happy to meet with the daughter to discuss the case.

"It is certainly the case that the way allegations and incidents of harm to children are handled now are very different than was the case in the 1970s," it added.