My Rapist Wanted Access To My Daughter

Karen Lee, 38, became pregnant after a horrifying sexual assault. But her attacker continued to torment her...

- Kelly Strange & Rebecca Wright

With a rattle of the letterbox, the post fell to the floor. Scooping up the pile, I rifled through. There, buried among the usual bills, was a letter that made me shake. ‘Please, let it not be from him,’ I thought. But, opening it, my hands trembling, the news was far worse than I could have imagined...

There are some people who come into your life at the right time – and, on the night I met Russell Mellford, in summer 2001, he seemed like one of them. I was a divorced mum-of-two looking for some excitement. And Russ, a local DJ, full of swagger and charm, seemed to offer just that.

Soon we were a couple and he moved into my home in Rainham, Kent. A dad himself, he was great with my kids – and he couldn’t get enough of me. ‘You’re gorgeous,’ he’d say, sliding his hands around my waist. But while I was flattered to start with, I began to notice he’d bristle if ever I turned down his advances.

And, one night in January 2002, his anger boiled over. I’d woken up in the early hours and found that he still hadn’t come to bed. Heading downstairs, I found him watching TV. ‘Why are you up so late?’ I asked sleepily. 

‘What’s it to you?’ he spat back. 

Before I knew it, he’d grabbed me by the throat and head butted me. As my nose spouted blood, my first instinct was to run out of the door.

But he talked me round. ‘I’ll never do it again,’ he pleaded. It was a lie. Over the following months, the violent outbursts became more frequent. And somehow he always twisted things round so it was my fault.

Feeling worthless