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Abuse victim speaks out as predatory paedophile given jail term of six years
WATCH: Full report by Marc Mallett:
WARNING: This article contains content which some readers may find disturbing
The victim of a predatory paedophile pensioner has said that her attacker turned her life into a nightmare.
A fortnight ago 80-year-old Sean Small was given a six year sentence for assaults on a woman and a teenage girl but he will only spend half of that time behind bars.
One of his victims claims that he threatened to kill her family if she ever spoke about the abuse.
“He has tortured me", she told UTV, "You know, this is like living in hell. This is not how my life should have been.”
This young woman is trying to rebuild her life which she says has been left shattered following more than a year of sexual abuse and threatening behaviour from her attacker.
Small, from Slievenabrock Avenue in Newcastle was jailed at the start of the month, after he confessed to a total of ten sex offences committed against two victims between 2016 and 2018.
A Crown Court Judge said the starting point of Small's sentence was 14 years but guilty pleas, a clear record and medical evidence that prison "will be more onerous" on Small compared to other inmates - meant that sentence was reduced to six years.
The victim added: “Everytime he got a chance, there was something. You know what I mean. And he would have covered my mouth so I wasn't screaming or anything. It just came out of the blue.
“I did come to a point that I did say to him, I'm going to tell my family what exactly happened. And he goes: nobody's going to believe you. They'll think you're just a yap. And if you do tell your family or your mum and dad - your whole family are going to be dead.”
With her attacker now behind bars, the victim is telling her story in the hope that other potential victims will come forward.
"I'm not the quickest to pick up things, but things that happened at home, how did I not see it. You know I was there all the time. How did I not see it?" the victim's mother said.
"So from that to now, I'm still blaming myself. I feel like I'm a failure at everything. I know I'm not the victim, but I feel as if I'm a bad parent," she added.
"I didn't want to believe it because this man was in trust. This man was our gardener," the victim's father explained to UTV.
"He breached our trust and destroyed the innocence of my daughter. And it hurts me and the pain. There's no word for it.
"And then you start asking yourself, what did you do wrong? Where did it go wrong? How did this happen? Why did it happen?
"He showed no compassion to my daughter. And there should be no compassion for people like him. He has shown no remorse. That man should have to rot in jail and never be allowed out," he added.
If you have been affected by this story, you can follow the links below:
https://www.thesurvivorstrust.org/