The family secret: Girl names firefighter uncle as her alleged abuser

a young woman bravely recounts the most horrifying moments of her life claiming she was sexually assaulted repeatedly by of all people her uncle a respected firefighter he was the father to my cousin so i thought nothing bad of him he held me down by my wrist to a bed that was never ever meant for what was done there and here's the worst part this didn't just happen she wasn't even six years old when her nightmare began but now her uncle claims she's lying there was never ever and ever years later this courageous survivor is about to be traumatized all over again this time in court he put his penis up to my vagina that's the biggest fear is that no one's going to believe you her name is andrea and her own metoo story is a chilling recollection now the 19 year old is bravely coming forward to recall unspeakable acts of horror she says at the hands of her own uncle he made me touch him andrea grew up in a quiet suburb of columbus ohio living a childhood with typical memories of holidays spent with family including her uncle tim i saw him mostly at thanksgiving and christmas she claims she was only three years old when he singled her out lavishing her with attention just showed a lot of favor to me and told me i was pretty and you know touched my hair which was i guess kind of odd considering there were so many of us odd indeed but tim durbin's behavior seemingly flew under the radar of andrea's parents who andrea says never noticed their little girl becoming a sick object of attraction for a man pushing 40. [Music] fast forward a few years tim started working construction jobs to supplement his income that's when andrea's parents hired him to remodel their home he did the construction for that andrea was only six years old at the time but suddenly with uncle tim around the house all day working she says he soon began paying creepy visits to her bedroom he would come to my room when people weren't really around when at one point my mom left us there with him to go to the store and my dad was working and of course no fault of her own to think that anything would go wrong but andrea tells me things went terribly wrong within a short time andrea alleges durbin began sexually molesting her whenever he had the chance he made me do things to him and he did things to me andrea says the agonizing visits from her uncle became more frequent and more aggressive he made me you know perform oral sex on him and did the same to me telling me that i was doing a good job and i was doing it right and then when i resisted doing it that he hit me in the face did he rape you did he physically rape you yeah when you were six years old yeah unbelievably it was about to get worse growing into a physical and psychological nightmare andrea claims durbin controlled her by saying he would harm her family if she ever told at first i think he thought i could keep it based on how nice he was you're prettier than all the other girls you know and if you can't tell anyone they'll be you know jealous it's our secret and then when i started to resist him more he said that he would hurt my family and hurt me and if i told them anything terrified andrea never revealed to her parents the insidious abuse she claimed she suffered at the hands of a trusted uncle right under their roof what did you do while this was happening to survive you know your brain knows how to save you from these things which is incredible and awful and you you're just not there at some point you just shut it down so i just shut it down but andrea tells me things went terribly wrong within a short time andrea alleges durbin began sexually molesting her whenever he had the chance the thing that i think stays with me a lot is the way he held my wrist to my bed while he was touching me i i still can't be grabbed in that way ever i unravel if someone does that you have a bit of ptsd from what he did to you for sure while andrea says she was happy to be rid of the monster what he left behind was a deeply scarred child still hiding the secrets that would haunt her for the rest of her life as the years passed on it looked like uncle tim would never pay the price for what he had done or would he andrea was living with a dark family secret you just shut up and you go with it because you're terrified at the tender age of six she had suffered the unimaginable brutal sexual assaults allegedly at the hands of her own uncle what do you say to people who say how can you remember something from that young of an age five and six years old it stamps in your brain and so when this huge thing started happening to me you can't forget it believe me i wanted to the nightmare had finally ended when her uncle tim finished his construction work on the family house but now andrea was left to cope with the haunting memories and psychological trauma that left even deeper scars andrea started harming herself by cutting her own flesh cutting myself a lot and it got to the point where no one could figure out what the root of this was and i wouldn't tell them her psyche so damaged she even experienced hallucinations so i had you know voices telling me to hurt myself to hurt other people and thankfully of course i only listened to the hurting myself because i feel like that was the only thing i could control but the deep incisions down her arm finally caught the attention of her seventh grade volleyball coach it's kind of hard to play a sport and have cuts down your arm especially a sport where the ball hits your arm every other moment so she knew that coach intervened telling andrea's parents about her wounds they promptly sent andrea to a therapist they had no idea what you were struggling with i had kept it to myself for so long i wasn't gonna stop keeping it then i still didn't trust anyone yet and that trust didn't come easily it would take a year of counseling before andrea would spill her deepest darkest secrets my counselor to this day has never heard the details of what happened to me because she hasn't felt it that it's essential for me to disclose them to her in order for me to heal from them after revealing enough to the therapist andrea finally broke the devastating news to her parents when i was on a volunteer trip to costa rica when i was a sophomore and i texted my parents and i said something happened to me and that is why i am the way i am and i didn't tell them who did it couldn't yet when you did see them what was their reaction it's hard to think these things happen under your own roof and without you knowing and and i can't begin to imagine to this day what my parents must feel about that i don't really want to imagine it i imagine it's not pretty after more than a decade the crushing weight of this horrible secret was lifted they believed me you know and like that's the biggest fear is that no one's going to believe you no one's going to hear you but andrea still did not reveal exactly who violated her trust would her alleged abuser ever pay the price for the innocence he stole after hearing andrea's harrowing story it was finally pieced together who she says the perpetrator was somebody found some of my personal writing where i utilized this metaphor about a firefighter and fire and burn and arson and all this and so they piece it together on their own it was a moment years in the making with firefighter tim durbin andrea's own uncle unmasked as her alleged abuser her therapist reported the alleged sexual assaults to police but a terrified andrea refused to press charges i did initially tell them if you report this i will say it's not true i won't do it i can't face him i can't do it i won't do it and then i realized you know i felt like i owed it to myself but also so much to anybody else's could be happening to finally andrea had a change of heart she bravely goes to cops where for the first time tells her version of the full story revealing all the alleged details of her shocking ordeal how old do you think you are do you have any idea like sexish i was just playing by her complimenting me and then he had me before moral sex when you say oral sex andrea what do you consider oral cells he compared his used to be like a lollipop like king even though the alleged abuse happened years before with no forensic evidence and no witnesses prosecutor kyle rohr says the allegations against tim durbin were stunning i've been a prosecutor for 20 years and i believed her story what did she say happened he sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions all of them occurred in her bedroom and all of them involved sexual intercourse oral sex things you typically think of when you think of rape nothing you should ever think of in the context of a five-year-old child ever now more than a decade later would this teenager find justice more than a decade after andrea's alleged abuser walked away this brave young woman reveals her shocking truth to detectives we want to warn you her story is graphic you said he had touched you with his feet hands over your clothes was that on top of your pajamas in your panties or just on top of your panties or underwear whichever yeah no over both and then he removed your underwear she was only six years old now cops want to talk to the man she claims violated her innocence her uncle tim durbin so the reason you're here today is because there has been an allegation that there was some inappropriateness between you and a child do you want to tell me about that i have no i don't have the slightest but andrea says she does remember how it all started while she and her cousins were playing hide and seek under my desk so he came in and shut the door he said and then what happened a lot of compliments like you're just really pretty you're the prettiest person when cops asked tim about the alleged incident he denies ever being in the same room with his niece andrea tells detectives that she enjoyed the extra attention from her uncle at first but she says the compliments quickly crossed the line he would get very upset with you if you didn't let him kiss you on the mouth yeah i think and once he became more forceful and i was like well i'm not going to disobey what he's saying he started touching me in other places like in my vagina area and i was forced to touch him but again durbin flat out denies having any form of sexual contact with andrea nothing that she could misconstrue as a child you know what um i mean you know if it did happen it's not the end of the world it's like he killed somebody no but but there was never ever ever any sexual contact andrea remembers things differently as she describes in graphic detail the horrifying thing she claims her uncle tim did to her i was in a bed and he came in and closed the door and got like sat on my bed i was laying down started over my clothes like punching me and then he took off my underwear when detectives press durbin further he sticks to his interview it's not my story day as a detective right but so but i'd be i mean i okay um but that's fine but i know that i have no clue okay and so when you are you know you're starting to accuse me of something i would say you better be pretty confident they were so confident detectives get a warrant for durban's arrest the now 51-year-old firefighter is charged with rape gross sexual imposition and kidnapping what convinced you to take on this case despite the lack of cooperating evidence just andrea when you listen to her story she's compelling you could tell that there was some serious trauma in her life and the natural source of the trauma was the sexual assault the case goes to trial as both sides come out with guns blazing the prosecution taking jurors back to that very first day when durbin allegedly assaulted andrea in her own bed he began touching her vagina over her clothing then he stopped he left told her not to tell why did he stop that day grooming he was getting away with it he didn't want to push too far he was planting the seeds of normalcy fear guilt the defense countered that the abuse never happened attacking the victim by claiming andrea had serious mental issues that led to the accusations against her uncle tim there's a young woman who has a troubled mind there's a family that's going through strife and what we know to be true in this case ladies and gentlemen in this case there is an innocent man and that's exactly what andrea's aunt told jurors in this defense of her now ex-husband there came a point in time when you became aware of these allegations yes what was your reaction when you became aware never happened it's uh no doesn't fit him no without a doubt that was my reaction andrea's mother beth took the stand testifying that her daughter's behavior dramatically changed after the alleged assaults it got weird more than once she would run up to me and give me this quick side hug and run away sometimes she would just throw herself in my lap and cry for a minute and get up and run away from me then in a sensational courtroom moment andrea takes the stand watch as she calmly walks past her uncle tim who sits just feet away from her tell the jury then what where were you when the third incident occurred in my bed in my pajamas he put his penis up to my vagina and i don't really know um if there was penetration but it hurt i know that was an attempt at least did it feel as if he was trying to penetrate your vagina yes durbin never took the stand what was it like to face him from the stand and see him while testifying here about what he did you know i looked at him so he knew that i knew he was there not that i was afraid of him anymore but in that moment he was afraid of what i could do to him after nearly a year of alleged sexual assault sandra says she was tormented by memories of tim durbin to cope she started cutting herself contemplated suicide and heard voices were you aware that they would command her to do certain things yes to harm herself yes the defense seized on the theory that andrea's harrowing ordeal never happened and was actually the results of what they call displaced memories or visions planted in andrea's mind through hypnosis you ever have any doubt about your memory no did you ever have any doubt about the sexual abuse did you ever have any doubt about who did it no what does that do to you when someone in court said that you had false planted memories the idea that my counselor you know hypnotized me or something is insane because the only thing we ever did was just talk about how i felt now and my relationships and how i'm going to move forward the case rested and after eight hours of deliberations a staggering outcome a hung jury you kind of feel your heart sync when you walked out of that courtroom thinking you had just torn your heart out for all these people but then another dramatic development it's my understanding the state will dismiss counts two three four five and seven of the indictment instead of facing another trial tim durbin cut a deal a controversial move under what is known as the alford plea the prosecutor and the family agreed to drop the rape charges and in exchange durbin pleaded guilty to an abduction charge which meant no jail time and only five years of community control which means durbin will have to report to a probation officer do you think he got off light i do how can you get away with this and this is all you get crime watch daily repeatedly reached out to durban's attorney for comment but he declined our request as for andrea now this brave young woman has finally closed the chapter of her horror story and has put the pain in the past to somehow balance the universe a little but that doesn't always happen that way and the thing that i know for sure is i'm going to be okay i'm not sure he will and with me right now to break down the very troubling and complicated case of timothy durbin is criminal defense lawyer sarah azari sarah thanks for being here thanks for having me chris you've spent a lot of time in court defending criminal cases why do you think this ended in a hung jury i think because this case turned on andrea's mental state and both sides used that to their advantage so for the prosecution it was that because of the trauma of the rape she suffered these hallucinations and this tormented mind and for the defense it allowed the defense to raise the issue of reasonable doubt and so because of her mental state because of her inability to be able to with certainty testify as to the events that occurred versus the voices in her head the jurors could not unanimously vote so two people held out this could have been a lot more serious for tim at the end of the day i mean he got a pretty good deal on this plea he absolutely did i think he is avoiding the risk of being found guilty on a number of very serious charges which were sexual assault charges that would subject him if convicted to a lifetime of sex registration so he's avoiding that he's also avoiding prison time explain this alfred plea what is that the alfred plea is a mysterious plea it's essentially where the defendant says i'm innocent but i'm guilty because i admit that if the prosecution goes to trial they can prove me guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but it allows the defendant to maintain his innocence at the same time suffering a conviction which brings justice for the victim

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 886,309

Rating: 4.7799296 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Durbin Ohio, Timothy Durbin firefighter, Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily

Id: JDK0gQky5Ro

Length: 21min 12sec (1272 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 08 2020