For two long decades the family of Rachel Wilson have been dreaming of the day they would see justice delivered and that day has finally come.
Their lives were turned upside down when the teenager disappeared on May 31, 2002, and despite them making countless appeals they always lived in hope that one day she could walk through the door.
Even the discovery of the 19-year-old’s remains in a drainage ditch on the outskirts of Middlesbrough in 2012 brought them the peace they hoped for.
Rachel’s sister Nicola said: “It will be some kind of closure but I don’t think it will ever be complete closure for us because our nightmare is ongoing.
“We hope he gets a long enough sentence – as bad as it may sound – that he does die in there. He doesn’t deserve to see another day of freedom.”
The family weren’t aware of the full horror that Rachel was suffering at the hands of her abusive and exploitative partner, who was more than 20 years older than the vulnerable teenager.
Hall got Rachel addicted to crack cocaine before forcing her to work on the streets as a prostitute to pay for their drug habits.
Her family knew she had a drug problem but they never knew the life the teenager was living as she never confided in her family.
Nicola added: “He may look old and frail now but he certainly wasn’t then. It was a really nasty piece of work for what he put her through.
“She was always such a happy person; even though we knew she was on drugs but we never knew the extent of her suffering and what she was going through.
“Whenever she came round she was always happy, she always masked the fact of what she was going through and that hurts us a lot.
“She obviously didn’t want to hurt us and she was just a teenager. She was so young and vulnerable at the time and now everything has come to light she must have been going through hell.”
Nicola said: “Our grieving process started the day he admitted it because for 20 years it has always been about the investigation – who did it? Is she alive? – it has always been consumed by police.
“Once he admitted it all of that went away and we can finally grieve properly.”
And Rachel’s family is determined to ensure that the teenager is remembered a loving and caring woman and not just the victim of this despicable crime.
Her mother Tina said: “She was a loving daughter – caring and cheeky. She was a loving young girl – I just want her to home, to be honest, still.”
Nicola added: “She was the loud one, the cheeky one, I was just the quiet one in her shadow I think.
“She was the one telling me to do stuff – ‘howay, we will go and do this and howay, we will go and that’ – like a big sister does.
“I would like Rachel to be remembered as the funny, cheeky girl that she always was. That part of her life was such a short period, there was so much more.
“She was such a beautiful, caring sister, friend, daughter and Aunty, she was amazing.”
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