A woman who was 13 when she was groomed and sexually abused by a man twice her age had her case dropped because a controversial legal loophole allowed her attacker to go free.
Today, she tells her harrowing story of how the six-month relationship “ruined her life”.
The woman’s happy family life was destroyed and she was brought up in care, passed around by social services.
But when the victim realised she was abused and plucked up the courage to seek justice against the man she once trusted, she was told by the Crown Prosecution Service he could not be charged.
A letter from a senior prosecutor, seen by the Mirror, states: “If the law was different, I would have charged [Mr X] with having unlawful sexual intercourse.”
Sexual offence laws were changed in 2004 so an adult who had sex with a child under 16 could be prosecuted with no time limit attached.
But charges cannot be brought against anyone for “consensual” sex with a child under 16 if it happened before 2004 and no complaint is made within a year.
Campaigners outraged by the case have called for the law to be changed to shut down the loophole.
It is thought to have allowed hundreds of Britain’s worst abusers to walk free as the police are left powerless to charge them.
Malcolm Gilbert, a director at Family Matters rape crisis centre, said: “The law must be changed, but until then the CPS have their hands tied, and more men like this will escape justice.”
The grooming first started when the victim, who the Mirror will call Sarah, to protect her identity, was 13 and worked as a babysitter for the 26-year-old man.
Sarah, now 34, said: “He was my dad’s friend. They worked together. He had a common law wife and they had a daughter. At the time I did babysitting for pocket money, and I’d look after his daughter.
“He started giving me cigarettes, he bought me alcoholic drinks, made me music tapes and flattered me with comments about how lovely and innocent and beautiful I looked.
“The first time anything happened was December, 1993. I was sitting on the sofa and he came in, made me a cup of tea. We had a cigarette together and were watching TV. That’s when he leaned over and kissed me. Then we started having sex. I was a virgin.
“I thought we were having a real relationship. I thought that he loved me. He would pick me up from school at lunchtime in his car. I thought I was the big woman who had this grown-up boyfriend who drove a BMW.
“We’d have sex in each other’s houses, outdoors in a field. There was once when we took his child to a swimming pool and he started groping me.
“My attendance at school went down and I was bunking off classes. In May 1994 I ran away from home with my friend and stayed at my dad’s friend’s house.
“My dad was out looking for me, and this man knew where I was, but pretended to be helping my dad.
“I went home and my dad hit me for running away. My friend then came to my family house with her mum and aunt and then the whole story came out.
“I was terrified. I jumped out a bathroom window, ran straight to a phone box and phoned the man to warn him. I ended up at my abuser’s home.
“I had nowhere else to go. He saw my bruises from when my dad had hit me. He knew our relationship was about to be exposed so he encouraged me to go to the police and make a complaint about my dad.
“This way all the police’s attention was focused on my dad, not on him. I did what he said. I was just a child.” The police interviewed Sarah’s dad on suspicion of assault but she later dropped the charges.
Her father told police he suspected his daughter was having sex with the man but the claims were never investigated, and the man moved his family to Scotland.
TWISTED
Sarah, who now has a child of her own, said: “I couldn’t go through with a court case against my dad. I realised that his friend had twisted everything, had made me think dad was the bad guy, not him.
“After that I went into care. I stayed with foster parents. But I was still in contact with the man. He sent me a few love letters. In 2012 Sarah decided to come forward and make a report to the police about her relationship after seeing him in a pub. She said: “I never knew he’d come back from Scotland. I left the pub in bits. It all came back, what he’d done, how he’d ruined my life, tore my family apart.”
Sarah’s case was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Sapphire sex crimes unit. The man was arrested twice and quizzed but denied having a sexual relationship with Sarah.
She then provided police with overwhelming evidence. But then in July 2013 the CPS wrote to her explaining its decision not to prosecute.
Sarah said: “When I got that letter I was devastated. He’d got away with it, all over again.”
Mr Gilbert, from Family Matters, described it as “a classic case of a young girl being groomed and used sexually by an older man”. He added: “When that particular law was developed, we knew very little about sex abuse and the processes by which someone can be groomed by an individual in a position of trust. The law, however, has simply not caught up with current knowledge. This law needs to change and MPs need to address that.”
Fay Maxted, head of the Survivors Trust, added: “For some young victims it can take a decade and more for them to understand the grooming process.
“We need urgent changes in the law.”
The CPS said prosecutions of any allegation had to be in line with the law of the time.
CHARGES
A spokesman added: “For alleged sexual intercourse with those aged 13, 14 or 15, the law prior to May 1, 2004 was significantly different to the current law.
“Where an incident is alleged to have taken place before 2004 and where consent is not disputed, the appropriate offence to consider is intercourse with a child, contrary to the 1956 Sexual Offences Act.
“However, it is not legally possible to charge this offence more than one year after the alleged incident took place.
“It is also not legally possible to charge indecent assault if this would be a direct result of being time barred from a charge of sexual intercourse with a child. Each case must be considered on its own merits.”
