Pedo babysitter gave me 50 cents to abuse me when I was 6 – his punishment was a joke
EVERY time she sees a certain coin in her purse, Sarah Keavney’s blood runs cold.
For a moment, she is six years old again, a 50-cent piece glinting through the darkness as she is subjected to horrific sexual abuse by her babysitter.
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As deranged abuser Peter Hayes carried out his attack on Sarah, he left 50p on her bedside tables – an image that has haunted her all her life.
In October, 60-year-old Hayes was jailed for five years and four months for abusing her for between six and eight years.
He had threatened that Sarah, 45, would be taken from her family if she ever spoke out. But 39 years later, the mother-of-five has finally got justice and is now campaigning for change to the law surrounding child sex offenders.
Sarah from Manchester, who bravely waived her right to anonymity, says: “For years I have been haunted by flashbacks: the 50p coin next to my bed, the way he threatened that I would never see my family again if I ever told someone.
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“When I finally came forward, I was told he would receive a lighter sentence because historical crimes are sentenced based on guidelines from the time the crime occurred.
“So he got a shorter prison sentence because he abused me when I was a child, which is so wrong.
“He has made the system work perfectly for him. That has to stop.
“During the months between his conviction and sentencing, he was also able to walk the streets freely, and no one had any idea he was a sex offender.
“The idea of him walking past schools and family homes unnoticed and unattended was devastating. That has to change. He should have been locked up, away from children, until he was sentenced.”
Sarah and her family met Hayes in 1985 when they moved to Partington, Manchester.
Sarah says: “He was part of the community and lived on our road. He hung out with the adults, but didn’t really hang out with the kids.
“However, he often showed up where we were, which seemed like a coincidence at the time.
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‘He turned up at the local park, he even turned up at a caravan park where we were staying.
“Looking back, he had ingratiated himself with the adults so they trusted him.”
Sarah’s mother, Karen, had two regular babysitters, but when one abandoned her, Hayes offered to step in.
Sarah says: “It seemed like he was doing her a huge favour. He offered to skip the night out so she could go.
“She made sure we were all in bed before she left.”
But while her two younger brothers slept in another room, Hayes snuck into Sarah’s room and sexually assaulted her.
She says: ‘It sticks in my mind that he left 50 cents in the bedside tables, perhaps as a bribe or as a gift.
Pedo punishments are too lenient, says crime boss
National Crime Agency boss Graeme Biggar joined The Sun in calling for tougher sentences for pedophiles.
His call for a crackdown comes as yet another soft case has come to light.
Trainee teacher Jacob Chouffot, 26, was spared jail despite sharing vile videos of newborn babies being abused.
Ex-BBC presenter and father-of-five Edwards, 63, escaped with a suspended prison sentence after paying £1,500 for images and videos he called ‘amazing’, including those of a child aged between seven and nine.
Shockingly, 80 percent of those convicted of possessing indecent images of children avoid prison.
Sun’s Keep Our Kids Safe campaign calls for the jailing of those with the most serious images.
The Government launched a sentencing review earlier this month and Mr Biggar stressed: “It is not just viewing images that causes harm.
“This creates a market for and sometimes directly encourages people to sexually abuse and rape children and videotape themselves doing so. So it should be taken very seriously.
“We are of course aware that prisons are quite full and recognize that not everyone needs to be sent to prison.
“The NCA will not argue that every sentence should be increased and that every crime should end in prison. That’s not practical in terms of prison population and not necessarily in terms of the evidence in terms of keeping the public safe.
“But there are some crimes that require prison terms and I don’t think the balance is right at the moment.
“I hope this is something the government will look at in the review.”
‘The next morning it was gone, as if he had mocked me about it.
‘Maybe he was afraid my mother would see it and ask where it came from. I didn’t think about it at the time, I blocked everything out, but looking back on it, it makes me sick. Why would he do that?”
Sarah says she was too scared to speak out.
“I felt very confused and scared,” she admits.
“I didn’t know what had happened, but I felt it was wrong.
“Hayes told me that if I told anyone, I would be taken away and I would never see my family again.
“My parents had recently divorced, so I was already vulnerable. He scared me into silence.
“The threats went around and around my head and I was so scared. I was all alone, too afraid to confide in anyone.”
Hayes babysat for a second time and attacked Sarah again, this time more seriously.
Still, she was too afraid to speak out. At the age of eight, she saw him for the last time when he visited her house in an attempt, she thinks, to keep her quiet.
She says: “I was playing when I saw him knocking on our door.
“I hid in the street so I wouldn’t have to face him, but I was sure he was coming to check on me, to remind me of his threats.”
At the age of ten, Sarah confided in two of her cousins, but swore them to secrecy.
She says: “The abuse overshadowed my entire life. I was a quiet child, withdrawn and anxious, and was bullied at school.
‘When I realized during puberty that what he had done was actually sexual abuse, I felt sick.
I had terrible nightmares and flashbacks; I saw his face in my mind late at night and early in the morning
Sarah Keaveney
‘I started drinking in secret to take away the pain. I felt like damaged goods, like I would never fall in love or find happiness. I couldn’t move on and all my relationships were affected.”
When Sarah was 18, a relative insisted she tell her mother.
She says: ‘I blurted it all out but couldn’t talk about it afterwards.
“My mother felt guilty, my brothers felt guilty, and I even blamed myself. Yet the only guilty person walked free on the streets. It was so wrong.”
Despite her mother urging her to go to the police, Sarah couldn’t face it.
“I had terrible nightmares and flashbacks; I saw his face in my mind late at night and early in the morning.
‘I dreamed of tracking him down and confronting him in his local pub, but if I had seen him I probably would have been terrified all over again, back to my childhood.
“He had a terrible hold on me that I just couldn’t shake.”
At the age of 24, Sarah met her future wife Victoria – whom she married in 2015 – who urged her to seek support.
After years of counseling and therapy, Sarah finally began to look to the future with hope. She trained as a teacher and became the mother of five children.
Sarah says: ‘The abuse has had a huge impact on the way I raise my own children. I don’t let strangers into our house. They don’t go on sleepovers. I am very protective.
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“My home was my safe place, and he took that away from me.”
As the years passed, Sarah was haunted by the knowledge that Hayes was still on the streets, with access to other children. In 2019, after watching a documentary about child abuse, she bravely reported him to the police.
Nearly five years later, just before his trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown was due to begin, Hayes admitted sexual assault and indecency to a child.
Sarah says: “I didn’t have to give evidence because he pleaded guilty. But in a way I wanted to face him.
“He has bullied me all my life and now it has to stop. While it was a relief that he was convicted, it bothered me that he was free all that time before he was sentenced to walk the streets without people knowing what he had done. After he was convicted, he should have been locked up.”
Sarah was present at Hayes’ sentencing when he was not only jailed for more than five years, but also given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
She says: ‘I worried about how I would react, whether I would run away or challenge him. I was proud of herself for maintaining my dignity and seeing justice done.
“However, I was very disappointed with the punishment; If he had been sentenced under current guidelines, he would have received much longer.
“He abused me as a child, but then he took advantage of the rules of that time.
‘I’m glad he’s locked up. Most of all, I’m glad people know who he is and what he’s done.
“I have waived my anonymity because I want other survivors to read my story and find hope. It is never too late to speak out and shift the shame and blame to the perpetrator.
“Now that it’s all over, I’m proud that after 39 years I’ve found my voice and he has to carry the burden. I just hope I can convince other survivors to come forward too.”
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