Our daughter Lindsay, was a normal, happy 16
year old schoolgirl when she was raped by a 14
year old thug. She had enjoyed a rare night out
with friends, as she didn't have many nights out.
On the way home she got off the bus a few hundred
yards from home, when a local boy she know, but
disliked, approached her (he had been following
her since she got off the bus). He pulled her
into the park, knocked her down, held her there
and raped her.
Lindsay reported the rape straight away and the
rapist was arrested. Over the next nine months
we watched as Lindsay tried to cope with the horror
of the rape, the fear of going to court and trying
to get on with some kind of normal life.
Lindsay could not face going back to school even
though she was a very clever girl. She had just
passed eight O' Levels, five of them with credit.
She looked for a job and managed to find one with
east Ayrshire Council in Kilmarnock. She desperately
wanted to move away from New Cumnock, so having
a job in Kilmarnock was good for her.
Throughout all this she had nine different citations
for court, which were all cancelled. On one occasion
we were all at court till 12'0'clock, only to
be told that the judge had not bothered to turn
up and we would need to return home and wait for
the next date. All these court dates got Lindsay
really stressed out.
Finally the trial began. Lindsay was in the stand
for the whole day. The defence totally broke her
down by making her hold up the pants that she
was wearing on the night of the attack. They all
asked things like, how many sexual partners she
had had. Lindsay had never had any kind of relationship
like that, she was a virgin when she was raped.
By the time she came out of court she was shaking
and crying uncontrollably. Her head was totally
messed up after that.
Leading up to the trial Lindsay's doctor signed
her off work and gave her anti-depressants to
help her get through it all.
We had to wait for more than a week for the trial
to come to an end, because it was stopped for
two days to have a 'trial within a trial'. This
was to try and stop his interview tape from being
played to the jury, because he had totally changed
his story. They also tried to say he had a low
IQ and didn't understand the caution he was given,
to try and get the case thrown out. Obviously
it didn't and he was found guilty. Lindsay was
delighted. We thought that this would have perked
her up now that it was all over. We never realised
just how bad she was feeling.
Thirteen days after the verdict everyone was in
bed and I was sitting alone. I went upstairs to
go to the toilet and realised that Lindsay's bedroom
light was still on and her music was playing,
she had Bohemian Rhapsody playing. As it was quite
late I went into her bedroom to see if she was
sleeping. I walked in, looked over at her in bed
and thought that she was sleeping. I went over
to turn of the music, I looked at her again and
thought she didn't look right. I went over to
her and shook her, shouted at her and then realised
that she was cold and not breathing. I called
for her dad to come through and I began CPR while
he called the ambulance, but it was too late,
Lindsay was gone. She had taken a fatal overdose
of the anti-depressants she was given to help
her.
Lindsay never got to see her rapist sentenced.
Lindsay passed away on the 16th July 2002. |
