Abuse victim forced to have sex with complete strangers

Linda, 33, from Dringhouses, York, has taken the brave decision to waive her anonymity to reveal the true extent of the emotional and physical torture she suffered as the wife of perverted Nigel Coates.

Today, as North Yorkshire police launched a new campaign to help domestic abuse victims, Linda said she hoped her story could serve as a warning to other women suffering a similar plight to tell the police sooner.

Coates, 48, of Ascot Way, Acomb, was jailed for 13 years at Leeds Crown Court in July, 2003, after being found guilty of forcing Linda and another woman have sex with his father, former North Yorkshire county councillor Raymond Coates.

Raymond Coates, 76, also faced serious sex charges until he was deemed too ill to stand trial.

Linda was only 17 and homeless when she first met Nigel Coates, then 31, in a York pub.

Knowing her desperate situation he persuaded the vulnerable teenager to accept a shocking proposition which would put a roof over her head, but which would prove to haunt her for the rest of her life.

"He said he would put me up in his caravan in Huby so we could live as boyfriend and girlfriend, if I slept with his father one day a week," she said.

"That was to be my rent."

Linda endured the arrangement for about two years until the "demands got worse" and she could bear it no longer.

"It became part of everyday life," she said. "I felt I had to do it or I would have no roof over my head. It was a nightmare."

Linda escaped the family and moved in with her mother in York, but said it was not long before Coates persuaded the emotionally-scarred young woman to take him back.

Still vulnerable and disturbed, she agreed and the couple were married and started a new life in Malton.

But Linda's problems had only just begun, as Coates sunk to new depths of sexual depravity.

Before long, she said he was forcing her to have sex with men picked up in local pubs, while he watched.

"It was either sleep with them or get a beating," she said.

"He would make me wear short skirts and low cut tops to the pub and say (to men) 'come back with us and she will sleep with you'.

"He just thought it was fun, it was for his pleasure."

Linda, who was still barely out of her teens, said there were hundreds of men who took up the offer over that period, causing her to "shut down" emotionally.

Linda said his next ploy was to force her to pose for obscene photographs and make a pornographic video. He would show the material to men he had befriended on the street to entice them to sleep with her.

In a sick joke which caused her family to practically disown her, Linda said Coates played the pornographic tape to relatives during a social gathering.

"Nigel thought it was really funny," Linda said. "I just turned into a wreck."

The years of emotional and physical abuse had taken their toll and she was repeatedly admitted to Bootham Hospital for psychiatric treatment.

Linda said she tried to take her own life on several occasions by overdosing on tablets. She even threatened to throw herself off Clifton Bridge.

"I just couldn't cope anymore," she said.

"But while I was in Bootham something just snapped and I thought I don't have to see him (Nigel) any more."

When she was released, Linda finally left her husband, but still suffered in silence for six years until reading a story in the Evening Press which inspired her to go to the police and tell all. Linda said the high-profile court case at Leeds Crown Court was a harrowing experience, but was worth it to see justice done.

"It brought me a lot of satisfaction to know what goes around comes around," she said. "I finally got justice and it was all out in the open. He (Coates) is a first-class pervert and looking back I think why did I ever do it?"

Linda advised any other women who are suffering or have suffered in a similar way, to tell the police immediately.

"Don't stew on it, just tell somebody," she said.

"I wish I had done it a lifetime ago. I hope he rots inside," she said. He is a scumbag and I will never forgive him."

Horror of flashbacks

DETERMINED Linda Abbey said today said she was rebuilding her life and was determined to put the past behind her.

She admitted she was still haunted by dreams of her perverted husband, Nigel Coates, but told how she had found love again.

Linda said her partner, Tony Allsopp, 50, who she met after leaving Coates, had been her "rock".

"It's been nice to have someone close to stand by me," she said.

"If Tony had not been there I don't know where I'd be today."

Tony, who has his own shoe repairing business, first met Linda when she was 13, but said he knew nothing of her dark past when they got together.

"I bumped into Linda in the pub and the rest is history," he said.

"I sometimes wonder how an earth she put up with it all."

Now the pair are considering starting a family and have asked the council for a larger home than their one-bedroom flat.

Linda added: "I have little flashbacks now and again, but I know my future would be brilliant if the council agree to give me this two-bedroom house."

Linda said she had been on City of York Council's housing waiting list for more than three years, despite social workers and senior detectives who dealt with the case against Coates writing to housing chiefs on her behalf.

One social worker wrote: "I would respectfully request once again that Miss Abbey's application for a larger property be considered favourably and at the earliest convenience."

Linda said: "All the council keep telling me is that they are trying to get the paperwork sorted out."

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "If enough information is provided to show access arrangements, customers will be considered for a larger property."

Help is there if you need it

DOMESTIC abuse campaigners today hailed Linda Abbey's decision to speak out as "extremely brave".

Linda took the courageous decision to waive her anonymity in the hope of encouraging other victims of sexual and physical abuse to report their situations to the police straightaway.

Linda said she supported a new campaign to tackle the "hidden crime" of domestic violence and abuse in York and North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire Police chiefs announced they would work with other groups, such as Women's Aid, to help the victims of violence in the home. They aim to better co-ordinate support for those affected by abuse, and to offer advice from a variety of groups.

Sue Lonsdale, a spokeswoman for York Women's Aid, said female victims of sexual or physical abuse took an average of seven years before they reported it to the police. "We acknowledge her (Linda's) courage for speaking out and opening up. I think she is a brave woman because not everyone is sympathetic to domestic violence. We wish her all the best and hope she can now turn her life around."

Miss Lonsdale said some women never reported their abusers to the police.

"I would urge victims to phone us and get advice," she said.

"Women should never be frightened to pick up the telephone - they will always get a friendly voice at the other end."

Inspector Steve Harris, who set up the strategy, said victims of domestic abuse like Linda should contact them as soon as possible.

"We urge anybody suffering abuse to get in touch," he said.

"We would offer a sympathetic and understanding approach. All our officers have received specialist training in dealing with domestic abuse incidents in a sensitive but robust manner.

"We understand that it's very difficult for anybody to come forward and state that they are suffering in this way, but that is why we treat them with such sensitivity."

Anyone who is the victim of domestic abuse should phone York Women's Aid on 01904 646630 or log-on to its website at www.yorkwomensaid.org

Updated: 10:07 Tuesday, March 15, 2005