‘I was drugged and raped by evil stepdad'

Natasha Hatton, 31, from Liverpool, reveals how she found the courage to face her rapist 16 years after her horrific ordeal

- KAREN PASQUALI JONES

'Glancing up from playing with my doll, I could hear Mum calling me. “Coming,” I said, running to see what she wanted. A stranger was standing next to her in the living room. “This is David, my new boyfriend,” Mum said. “He’s going to be your dad.”

I stared at him. I was just four years old and had never met my real dad. It had always been just Mum and me. She’d had me really young, when she was just 15. She was little more than a child herself, but we didn’t need a man around all the time.

“Call me Dad,” the blond man said, and I glared at him before running back to my room.

David McLeary moved in and Mum was always happy after that. I hardly saw her and David. They’d disappear into her bedroom and I’d hear them giggling.

“It’s lucky I have you,” I said to my doll. She was the only one to keep me company now he was around.

“You’re off to Nan’s for a while,” Mum said one day. I loved Nan. She would buy me toys and treats, but she would also sit and read to me, cuddle in front of the TV and find fun things to do. I didn’t know how long I stayed with Nan, but when I saw Mum she had a fat tummy. And when I went home she had a baby in a pram. “This is your little brother,” she announced.

I looked at him asleep and my heart melted. He was so tiny – just like a boy version of my doll. I loved giving him his bottle, rocking him to sleep. I even liked changing his nappy.

Mum and David would vanish into the bedroom and leave me with my brother. I’d hear them laughing or fighting.

One time Mum’s lip was swollen and bloody. “What happened?” I asked. She tried to smile. “I walked into the door,” she said.