'Evil' dad who sexually abused his two daughters spared jail - because he has Alzheimer's
An "evil" father who subjected his two daughters to a catalogue of sexual abuse has been spared jail - due to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Dennis Cottee, 85, launched a "devastating and debilitating" campaign of abuse against his girls when they were as young as 11 and four, including the rape of his older daughter.
The older sister also faced abuse from her brother, Jacques Cottee, who molested her as they returned from watching a film at The Savoy cinema in the early 1980s.
Jacques Cottee, 57, was jailed earlier this month at Swindon Crown Court for three years and 10 months, after a jury found him guilty of incest.
But the court heard his father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was receiving palliative care and was ruled unfit to plead.
On Thursday, Judge Jason Taylor QC sentenced Cottee to a two-year supervision order. He must also sign onto the sex offender's register for five years.
Cottee had begun abusing his older daughter after she started at secondary school.
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He made her perform sex acts on him as he drove back to their farm, had simulated sex and finally – when she was in her mid-teens – raped her.
Cottee began abusing his younger daughter when she was four years old, forcing to perform a sex act on him as in his car outside shops in Cricklade.
On one occasion, he had molested the girl on an upstairs landing in the farmhouse, while a friend of the girl's mother lay dying of cancer in the house.
The daughter recalled: "While he was doing this I had to listen to her dying. She was gargling. She was rattling."
Judge Taylor said: "It's clear to me that these actions have had a devastating and debilitating effect on their lives and will continue to do so as they move forward.
"They are emotionally and psychologically scarred and they always will be.
“It was with a heavy heart that I could not pass a far more punitive sentence on Mr Cottee for what is obviously incalculable pain and harm he has caused his daughters.”
The two victims asked to partially waive their right to anonymity so as to name their abusers publicly.
