Rapist On The Run

​●Attacked by my uncle at 18 

●Perpetrator arrested 20 years on 

●Coward fled before sentencing

- Kelly Strange

Julie Smith, 39,

Edinburgh

Aged 18, I felt like I had the world at my feet. 

I’d just finished school, had been accepted on a course to study Hairdressing – and, that summer, my aunt Linda had asked me to come and work at her ice-cream and hamburger kiosk by the sea in Newcastle.

Arriving, I made myself at home with Linda, her daughter Sarah, 15, and her husband Andrew Robinson.

‘Hope you don’t mind me sharing your room,’ I said to Sarah. 

‘It’ll be fun!’ she smiled. 

I was going to enjoy my first summer away from home. 

Andrew seemed OK, but when he wasn’t at work fixing and selling cars, he was at the pub, so it was often just us girls in the house, having a giggle.

Then, one weekend, Sarah went to stay with her dad, so I had our bedroom to myself.

I awoke in the night to feel a hand over my mouth. 

Andrew. 

I froze as his other hand reached under the covers, and he started touching me.

As he raped me,I was too scared to make a sound.

My aunt was in the next room, but, silenced by terror, I couldn’t scream.

Afterwards, he just left the room and joined my aunt in bed without saying a word.

Left alone, frightened and in pain, I suddenly felt a long way from home.

The following morning, I was too terrified to get out of bed.