Woman shares horror rape ordeal after teacher groomed her at age 11

Amy Nickell The Sun

However, this wasn’t an innocent childhood romance — Wilcock was Rachel’s 28-year-old teacher, and he would go on to abuse and rape her in a horrifying catalogue of abuse spanning five years.

Talking to The Sun, Rachel said: “You think you’re grown up and as a teenager you know everything, but you realise you don’t and you are still a child.

“That makes what Graham did worse because it’s taking away somebody’s innocence, and that’s what he did to me.”

Sadly, she’s not alone. In the last five years in the UK over 200 teachers have been struck off as a result of sexual misconduct with students.

Groomed and sexually abused, married mum-of-one Rachel, now 43, kept her personal ordeal secret for 25 years.

But she’s chosen to share her story ahead of a new documentary on British TV called Teacher’s Pet in which she details the abuse she suffered at the hands of her school’s deputy head teacher.

‘LET ME TEACH YOU HOW TO KISS’

The abuse began when 11-year-old Rachel was grieving the sudden loss of her 48-year-old father who died from an epileptic seizure.

Wilcock, then 28, invited year 7 student Rachel into his office, offering her a shoulder to cry on.

But rather than support her in a professional manner, Rachel says things quickly turned sexual.

“He kissed me and said, ‘You don’t know how to kiss, do you?’, let me teach you and (he) kissed me in a mouth-open, adult way,” she said.

Initially, Rachel was flattered by the attention and began going to his classroom after school and spending hours in his company.

“I felt special … but part of me knew it was wrong even then and I didn’t tell anyone. I wanted to almost show off to a friend, but I kept it a secret.”

‘HE TOOK AWAY MY INNOCENCE’

When Rachel was 13, Wilcock lured her to his home for sex while his wife was out at work.

“He totally took away my innocence,” she said. “The notion of a male teacher inviting a pupil to his house sounds incredibly suspicious in today’s society, but during the ’80s no one gave much thought to predatory paedophiles.”

The abuse — which lasted for three years — was also emotional. Wilcock began to berate Rachel’s weight, and she developed an eating disorder.

“While privately he would tell me that he loved me, in public he’d bully me, calling me fat and ugly in front of other pupils,” Rachel said.

‘LIKE A KID IN A CANDY STORE’

By the time she was 16, Rachel had been having sex with Graham for three years.

She said: “I really began to see what was happening between me and Graham was not normal. I just wanted to get away.”

Finally, when Rachel left school she was able to escape his clutches and went on to lead a normal life, working as a broadcaster.

However, a few years later, Rachel saw a post on Facebook that said Wilcock was now working in a Romanian orphanage.

Rachel said: “Someone posted something like, ‘It’s like putting a kid in a candy store’, and it’s only then I realised I wasn’t the only one he’d abused.”

Battling with the strong emotions the shock news threw up, Rachel attempted to overdose and take her own life.

However, she instantly regretted her decision and was rushed to hospital, spending four days in intensive care.

“I just thought, I’m not going to let him take me down,” she explained. “He’d already screwed up enough of my life, I wasn’t going to let (him) ruin the rest of it.”

A ‘DEEPLY DISTRESSING’ CASE

Shortly after, Rachel summoned up the courage and reported Wilcock to the police.

He came back to the UK and was arrested before being charged and pleading guilty to six counts of indecent assault.

Seeing him in court for the first time in years, Rachel said she “didn’t recognise” her abuser. “I didn’t recognise the man standing in front of me in court,” she said.

“I was actually looking at someone else and then my mum pointed at him. I saw he was biting his nails. I was shocked. I remember him having blonde hair. He was good looking, charismatic. It jolted me.

“He had aged and looked like just the saddest middle-aged man.”

Wilcock was sentenced to four years in prison — the maximum allowed under the law at the time the abuse took place — and put on the sex offenders register for life.

The judge called the case, “deeply distressing”.

PLIED WITH ALCOHOL AND RAPED

While Rachel’s case seemingly ended with justice being served, the same cannot be said for all victims of childhood abuse.

Writer Graham Cavey, now 52, who also features on the show, was 14 when his priest took him under his wing, taking him on special school trips to the local cinema and theatres.

Graham says he was plied with alcohol by the priest.

He said: “He got me a job working behind a bar illegally when I was 14. I got drunk and the details become blurry — but he took me back to his home he shared with other priests and that was where he sexually abused me.

“Afterwards he said one word, ‘Sorry’, before throwing a towel, telling me to clean up before he drove me home.

“I felt sick, confused, disembodied — strangely disassociated with what was going on, but I knew something fundamental had shifted, and things would never be the same again.”

Graham feared telling his parents, especially knowing what high esteem they held the priest in.

The abuse came to an end when Graham was 15 and taken on a school trip to Greece where he confronted his abuser.

He said: “I repeatedly told him I hated him and that was the end of the sexual abuse. He told me I was evil.”

However, the abuse had left its mark and for a period of time he suffered with alcohol addiction and ended up in rehab.

He reported the abuse to the church, but no legal action was taken.

Graham said: “He admitted it but responded with ‘it takes two to tango’. I was 14. There was never any acknowledgment from the church or the school. Justice was not served.”

If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or sexual assault, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission