A schoolgirl abuse victim, who has finally seen her attacker brought to justice, tells Lauren Pyrah how the assault has destroyed her life.

“HE isn’t a paedophile, he’s a predator. He is a danger to everyone.”

These are the words the victim of Maurice Burton used to describe her attacker, who indecently assaulted her when she was a young girl.

The County Durham woman has described how Burton has ruined her life, and left her unable to trust anyone, unable to work, and unable to move on from the devastating mental scars the attack has left.

Motor mechanic Burton, now 49, was found guilty at Teesside Crown Court of two counts of indecent assault which happened in Darlington in the Nineties.

He was jailed for three years after his victim told the court how the attack had destroyed her life.

Speaking to The Northern Echo last night, she said: “The word I used to describe myself with was ‘damaged’. I couldn’t get that out of my head.

“I have no prospects in my life, no trust in anyone and no self-worth. I don’t feel my age.

I have been through so much.

He has wrecked my life for ever.”

She said she had tried to take her own life when she was a teenager as a result of the attack.

She added: “I am off work with depression. I tried to work, but I can’t. I would love to work, I would love to be a normal person with a mortgage.

But I can’t.”

She said she had undergone counselling since she was at school but it had not helped her.

“I don’t go now because while I’m in the room, I feel amazing and it helps me, but as soon as I walk out the door, I am back in the real world.

“I am just devastated.”

She said she felt the justice system had let her down.

“Drug dealers get more than three years,” she said. “I don’t think the justice system does anyone any good.

“He will probably only serve a year-and-a-half, yet he has given me a life sentence.”