THE systematic rape of a young child was only discovered years later when the victim took a series of overdoses.
Marcus Winton, 43, was jailed for 14 years at Northampton Crown Court yesterday for a campaign of rapes in Northampton.
He pleaded guilty to nine rapes on the day his victim, now an adult, had been due to give evidence in court against him last month.
Claire Howell, prosecuting, said the abuse began when the victim, who cannot be named, was young.
She added: “Eventually she took two overdoses and she was referred to counselling.
“When she was 16, she met her future partner and told him about what had happened. They have since split but while together, he persuaded her to tell.
“But it was not, in fact, until later that she described the abuse while she was in counselling and it was her counsellor who contacted the police.”
The court heard Winton, of no fixed address, had secured her silence by threatening to kill her if she ever revealed the abuse.
Judge Rupert Mayo sentenced him to 14 years, of which he will serve two-thirds in custody, placed him on the sex offenders’ register for life and passed an indefinite sexual offences’ prevention order.
As Winton was led to the cells, a woman in the public gallery shouted: “I hope you rot in hell.”
Sentencing Judge Mayo said: “It’s plain from the nature of your offending and from what she said that you completely robbed her of her childhood. When she was old enough, you threatened to kill her if she ever reported what you had been doing.
“During the course of these rapes you did not use contraception, running the risk of an uninvited pregnancy. It is hard to imagine a more repugnant series of abuse. It goes into the most serious category of offences.”