Woman ordered to pay her abuser £35,000 and let him return to family home

A woman who was sexually abused by her mother's partner for more than a decade has been ordered to pay him £35,000 in damages and let him live in the family home.

Kirsty Easthope, 52, was told to pay the amount after losing a legal battle against serial sex offender Arthur Hepple following his release from prison.

The 84-year-old was given a suspended prison sentence in 2014 and put on the sex offenders register for abusing Kirsty.

Hepple was then jailed for another sex attack on a woman and her teenage daughter in 2017.

Kirsty, who waived her legal right to anonymity, will also have to pay Hepple's legal fees and has been told to furnish the bungalow in York she inherited from her mother for him.

The ruling at Leeds County Court followed a dispute over the will left by Kirsty's mother Irma Barnett.

Her will stated that Hepple should be allowed to live in the family home after her death for the rest of his life.

After being released from prison in 2018, he insisted on returning to the former family home which prompted a court battle.

Mum-of-three Kirsty said: "I don't understand how he doesn't feel ashamed and how he can want to go back and live where he isn't welcome.”

Irma wrote the will in 2000 but died in 2013, aged 81, suffering from dementia and was unaware of the abuse, Kirsty said.

Hepple started assaulting Kirsty after Irma was diagnosed with dementia in 2003.

Kirsty made a complaint to the police after her mum had died after previously fearing authorities wouldn’t take her seriously.

Estate agent Kirsty had rented the property out and didn't allow Hepple to re-enter, offering him alternative accommodation of three ground-floor flats, which he denied.

She has been forced to evict her tenants after the ruling went against her.

Kirsty faces a total bill of more than £100,000 after paying Hepple's £61,000 legal costs and her own fees of £40,000.

Kirsty added: “I was devastated and absolutely inconsolable and just distressed.

“I’ve had to be put on medication for my mental health because between Christmas and New Year because I was at the doctors and just in a right state."

Kirsty’s dad Alan Barnett and Irma purchased the three-bedroom property in 1983, but Alan died at the age of 71 in 1996.

Irma then met Hepple through friends and introduced him to Kirsty in 1998, before he moved into the bungalow in 1999.