A RAPE victim’s family and friends applauded and cheered as her attacker was yesterday jailed for nine years for what a judge described as appalling abuse.

Mark Breckon, 43, stood in the dock with his head bowed as details of the assaults were revealed.

The offshore worker admitted two rapes, two charges of assault by penetration and one of causing a child to engage in sexual activity at an earlier hearing.

He returned to Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced yesterday.

The court heard how the girl split up with her boyfriend after the attack, and now struggles to deal with life, going out and trusting men.

After fleeing from her attacker, the teenager revealed what had happened to her mother and stepfather.

The court heard that while her stepfather comforted her, the traumatised girl asked him: “You are not going to do that to me are you?”

When he was arrested after last October’s attack, Breckon, of Phoenix Park, Middlesbrough, told police: “You are joking.”

He continued to deny the allegations, but finally admitted them in court.