Victim Impact Statement from Mother Whose Son Was Sexually Abused by Father Daniel Miller

Sylvia's Site
September 18, 2013

http://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/charged/miller-father-daniel-miller/victim-impact-statement-from-mother-of-a-father-daniel-miller/

[The following is the Victim Impact Statement which was prepared by a mother whose son was sexually abused by Father Dan Miller - the statement was read to the court on 17 September 2013 by the victim's sister]

I sit here in this court room as a mother of a son who was your victim Dan Miller.   I was a mother who trustedyou with her son, to go with you to the movies and overnightersto your mother’s house.  Now I know, years later that I had completely failed him as a mother.   I trusted in you with my son as I waved  goodbye  to  him as he headedawayon an adventure   as he would  call it with  you.   I was a failure as a mother not to see beneath your smile and charismatic personality that you were truly evil. You-were and are a pedophile.                              .

In our home you had been welcomed.  You were invited in as a faithful leader of my family, with open arms and trust, a trust that I had allowed my children to have with you. A trust I never thought would be broken or shattered as it has now been.

I have spent this past year and a half sad beyond words. It has consumed me and my thoughts.  The guilt, the anger, the sadness has taken control of my aging thoughts.  This Mr. Miller  is how I will spend my last days on earth.  This is what your actions have done. The tears still fall but the love for my God has not faulted.  He is with me always.  I tell God that I forgive you each and every day of my life  but I know that God knows differently, so  far.  It is because of your disgusting actions as a man, a man that I called Father & friend that I now live a life of sorrow.   I have died inside knowing that I failed to protect my son from you. I did not know that a wolf in sheeps clothing existed in my family’s world but we do now, don’t we Mr. Miller.?

Why as a man of the cloth did you extend your friendship to us and to the families of all your victims?

Why as a confessed pedophile have you continued to assault us mentally with this fiasco?

What role did your mother play in your encounters with my son?

Was your love for  God a means  and way for  you to get to the  little boys?  God’s pure children?

Did you use God in that way like you used the kindness of the flock?

These are questions   I will never have answers to, but for the rest of my life I will always ask.

My son’s life is one of complete devastation.     How could you have done this to him?  He was just a child, my child but most of all a child of God.

It has been painful for {redacted] to remember and talk about it, as it is painful for me not to feel  like a complete failure to him when he needed me the  most.  I will always feel like I didn’t protect him as a mother should. I will this never understand what and why you have done this.

All have now is prayer to cling onto. I pray as best I can for my son and all the boys and their families. I pray for the lost souls of faith in God. I pray for my family, right down to my grandchildren who have been touched by your abuse.

Here today we are all your victims for the same reasons but it is our sons, our brothers, our uncles, our nephews who were your targets. Let us all stand together united in hopes that justice will be served today for our loved ones that have suffered yesterday, will suffer today and again tomorrow.