The little girl’s ordeal began in 2011. The parents were friendly with a couple who lived nearby in a small Essex town. The mothers had known each for years and spent time in each others homes; the couples occasionally dined out together.
ONE sunny August afternoon, she and her daughter went for lunch at the friend’s house. All the children were in and out, playing.
Unbeknown to Sara, her friend’s 12-year-old son beckoned her daughter upstairs into his bedroom. There he closed the door and curtains, subjected her to porn on his laptop, then raped her. The next day the little girl told her mum what happened......
The couple were distraught. Not only had their youngest child’s innocence been shattered in the most unspeakable manner, but she had endured a horrendous physical and emotional trauma.
They immediately reported the assault to their local Essex police, in the belief that while they, as a family, would help their child come to terms with her ordeal, the force would pursue her attacker.
But the result was not the prompt conviction they expected. Instead, they have been subjected to an extraordinary catalogue of blunders, cover-ups and betrayals by the officers they trusted to bring the culprit to justice.
It is three and a half years since the rape, and the family are still waiting.In that time, the family have been forced to spend more than £40,000 in legal fees and lost countless thousands in earnings.
One senior officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the case had been ‘piss poor’.
And the culprit, who admitted the rape in a taped interview, escaped with nothing more than a youth caution, after being told by one police officer: ‘Do it with someone your own age next time.’
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