Karen Danczuk: Selfies response to child sex abuse

Karen Danczuk has revealed her social network selfies are a defiant response to child sexual abuse. Picture: Contributed

The 31-year-old wife of Labour MP Simon Danczuk told The Sun she had been abused from the age of six, but regained her confidence after seeking counselling on the advice of her husband.

Herself a Labour councillor in Rochdale, she has attracted headlines for her regular posting of selfies on Twitter and recently also claimed the party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman told her she was “too pretty” for politics.

Of the abuse, she told the paper: “For years afterwards I felt worthless, guilty, as though I had somehow brought this on myself. But I was just a little girl. I was on anti-depressants for years and wanted to kill myself.

“But my husband Simon encouraged me to have therapy and now - after intensive counselling - I have been able to get some confidence back.

“I used to cover my body, wear head-to-toe black clothes so I didn’t draw attention to myself. I was so self-conscious. I now know I didn’t do anything wrong. Finally I realise this isn’t my fault. I can have fun without feeling ashamed of myself.

“And that is why I take pictures and put them on Twitter - because I can. I am now free to do whatever I want.”

But she said she had not reported the abuse to police because she did not “want to take a step back”.

Mrs Danczuk’s row with Ms Harman came after she tweeted that the party frontbencher told her she should be in Girls Aloud during a private conversation at a party conference, something Ms Harman denied as “inconceivable”.

Mr Danczuk, MP for Rochdale, has been campaigning on the issue of child sex abuse in the wake of a 2012 grooming scandal in the town.