African-American woman murders and castrates her sexually abusive Liberian immigrant father

Joe Gould:

He should have been her protector, but instead her father was her tormentor, sexually abusing 26-year-old Brigitte Harris since she was 3 years old, the woman's lawyer told the Daily News yesterday.

"This guy was a monster," said Arthur Aidala, who represents Harris, the woman cops say cuffed, asphyxiated and sexually mutilated her father, Eric Goodridge, after luring him to her Rockaways apartment on Saturday.

The former airport security guard is expected to be charged later this week by the Queens district attorney. Police have not been able to interview Harris, who checked into a Staten Island psychiatric ward Saturday.

Aidala declined to discuss what took place in his client's apartment. Goodridge, 55, was already dead when his penis was cut off, sources said. Police have not recovered his genitals.

Aidala said his client had survived a horrific childhood. Harris, who called herself the Original Dark Angel and Lady Vengeance on her Web site, had been repeatedly molested by Goodridge since she was a little girl, he added.

"He first tried to rape her when she was age 3, but her older and younger brother broke it up," said Aidala, who spoke with Harris at length yesterday at the Richmond University Medical Center psych ward.

"He was the person who should have protected her - but didn't," Aidala said.

Harris' mother returned to her native Liberia when the girl was 2 years old. She was raised by her father, or distant relatives when Goodridge himself went back to Liberia for months at a time, the lawyer said.

She was at Goodridge's mercy until she became a teenager and moved out, Aidala said.

"Many people in the family knew and did nothing," he said. Harris was not the only family member Goodridge molested, the lawyer alleged.

Mutilated murder bombshell: Slay victim abused another daughter

'He was a monster'