A mother was shocked and horrified to discover her three-year-old daughter had been molested by a friend of the family.
Now she’s urging other parents to broach the subject of sexual abuse with young children to ensure they are safe and aware of what’s right and wrong.
Rachel was stunned when her little girl, Hannah, (names have been changed to protect their identities), casually revealed that her private parts had been touched by Ron Wood.
He was a trusted friend of the family who Rachel had no reason to suspect was a child abuser.
She had only raised the issue of sexual abuse with Hannah after hearing about the NSPCC’s PANTS campaign – which advises parents to ensure their children know they should not be touched beneath their underwear.
Rachel explains: ‘I hadn’t thought about talking to Hannah about abuse before as she was only three-years-old and I didn’t think that it would be something that would happen to us. Not long after hearing about the NSPCC’s Underwear Rule, I was putting some cream on her where her pants had rubbed and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk to her.
‘I said: “Where your pants cover; that area is for you. No-one else can touch this area.” I expected her to just say OK but she said “Ron puts his fingers up there.”‘
Jailed: Ron Wood was found guilty of four counts of sexually abusing the girl.
In disbelief, Rachel and her husband, Mark (not his real name), then asked Hannah to tell them more about what Ron had done.The couple had known Ron for ten years but had never been aware he had been alone with their daughter when he had visited their home.
Rachel said: ‘I felt so betrayed and I was in a state. We didn’t think something like this could ever happen to her; we hadn’t even left him completely alone with her. We saw Ron and his wife a lot and, from what Hannah told us, he had used every opportunity he could when he got a few minutes alone with her to abuse her. They played hide and seek a lot and she told me that he always told her to hide in the bedroom and he did it then. She said he did it “lots and lots and lots” of times.’
The parents called the police and praised the way they gently spoke to Hannah about what had happened to her before taking their investigation further.
Rachel recalls: ‘Everything was taken at Hannah’s pace and I can’t fault the police at all for how they handled it. I agreed that Hannah could have a medical examination and the damage was consistent to what she had told us had happened.
‘By now she knew that what had happened to her was wrong and she knew that she had to talk to the police about it so that Ron would be punished for what he did.
‘She said: “Do I have to tell them everything that he did to me so that he is told off?” I told her that she did and I was shocked when she said he touched her elsewhere too.’
She added that she was sickened to learn Ron had been telling Hannah she was his ‘special little princess’.
Ron, 60, of Chaddesden, Derbyshire, was arrested and charged with four counts of sexually abusing the girl. He denied he had done anything wrong so the family had to go through the ordeal of giving evidence at his trial.
