A COURT has heard a Carlisle woman’s moving account of the devastating impact on her life of being repeatedly raped as a child.
The woman’s powerful statement was read out at the city’s crown court as a judge sentenced 71-year-old Harold Nicholson.
The pensioner, of Holywell Crescent, Botcherby, had denied the allegations, but after hearing the evidence, a jury convicted him of five counts of raping the schoolgirl, who was just 11 when her ordeal began.
He was jailed for 20 years.
The victim — now an adult — penned a detailed statement about how his crimes had ruined her life, leaving her with a legacy of trauma, pain and repeated mental health breakdowns.