Karen Danczuk's brother guilty of raping her

Karen Danczuk has spoken of her secret torment after her brother was found guilty of raping her.

The estranged wife of Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk told jurors she was regularly molested in the family home between the ages of six or seven until she was 15 or 16 by her brother Michael Burke.

Waiving her anonymity to speak publicly after her brother's conviction, she said: "Most people remember their first time having sex with someone they love.

"Whereas my first time of having sex was with my brother.

"Even now I can't sleep naked. I can't even cuddle in bed. I will never love properly, I will never be able to let someone in. It's horrible."

Burke, who is five years older than his sister, denied 15 counts of rape, one attempted rape and one indecent assault against his sister and two other women, spanning an 18-year period from 1992 to 2010.

But following a three-week trial, a jury found the 38-year-old guilty of eight counts of rape and another serious sexual offence against three different women. This included three counts of rape against his sister between 1992-1994.

He was cleared of nine other serious sexual offences.

Weeping as she gave evidence from behind a curtain, Mrs Danczuk said the abuse started out as a game of hide and seek but progressed to rape when she was 11.

From then on she said it would happen on a weekly basis, usually on a Sunday which was "bath night" and continued until she was 16.

Mrs Danczuk initially revealed she had been abused, without naming her attacker, in an interview in The Sun in February last year.

She said: "To this day I have grown up and fought my whole life to change my childhood. I decided I would come forward, that was my choice.

"Before I ever became famous I was seeking help, before I ever knew I would end up in the public eye.

"This idea that it is just attention, this has ruined my life. I have had a horrendous life, it's a fact.

"I think I finally felt ready to face it, I'm ready to see this through, he can't get away with what he did.

"My life has been hell for what he's done, I don't want anything, I want closure."

Burke will be sentenced on December 15.