Title: Dark obsession
Description: A remarkable story of domestic horror, courage - and triumph. Shelley Sessions was a bright popular Texas teenager. Her father, Bobby Sessions, was a successful, driven man-about-town with an ego and a bank account as expansive as the Lone Star State. On the surface, theirs was the ideal family, but what admiring observers could little uspect was that behind the all-American exterior lay Bobby Sessions' dark obsession. Bobby adored his little girl from the moment he'd laid eyes on her, but it wasn't long before fatherly affection turned to perversion. When Shelley was only 8yr. old, Sessions embarked on a pattern of sexual molestation that would define their relationship for the next 7yrs. Throughout, Sessions threatened his daughter with exposure: if she didn't do as he said, he would tell the world the awful truth about her. For years Shelley was bound to silence through her shame. But in the end, she stood up to her father, taking him on as well as her mother, her father's family, and a whole Texas town - none of them willing to confront the horror of sexual abuse within their own ranks. Shelley Sessions did not take the law into her own hands; she took her father to court. In a record-breaking settlement, the jury decided in Shelley's favour - to the tune of $10million.
Subjects: Child sexual abuse, Incest, Case studies, Fiction, general