Bravely, she stood in the witness box and described her 'nightmare'. Decades after she was the victim of what a judge described as 'barbaric' cruelty, she was finally able to tell the truth.
The woman was just a girl when Lewis Skelton left her physically and mentally scarred. He subjected her and two other children to horrific ordeals.
Skelton, 91, was sentenced to four years after pleading guilty to three counts of child cruelty this week. Manchester Crown Court heard the charges related offences in the 1970s and 1980s. READ MORE: Man left with life-threatening injuries after bus crash in city centre Sentencing, Judge John Potter described the physical abuse Skelton committed as 'nothing short of barbaric', adding: "Bluntly, Mr Skelton, the truth is that you have escaped punishment for what you did. "But life has not been so easy for your victims, who through that period have had to live with the regular psychological torment of what you did to them." One victim chose to tell the court in person the impact Skelton had had on her life.
She said: "This whole experience has had such a detrimental effect on me, both physically and mentally. I am a mere shadow of my former self....
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