A WOMAN who was raped as a 13-year-old girl has bravely spoken out about her ordeal in the hope of encouraging other potential victims to come forward.
Alan Shepherd was jailed last week for 14 years after being found guilty of a series of historic sexual offences against three women in Barnsley, including rape, which took place in Barnsley between August 1975 and August 1976.
Debbie Stanfield was raped by Shepherd when she was just 13-years-old, after a year of being groomed by the man who she worked for as a baby-sitter.
As a foster child, Debbie - who has bravely chosen to waive the anonymity automatically given to victims in sexual offence cases - says Shepherd gave her the attention her foster family never did.
“He was really nice to me, saying how beautiful I was,” Debbie, now 55, told the Chronicle.
“I’d never had that. He started touching me a bit, and I quite enjoyed the attention.
“He got a bit closer and I realise now that he was grooming me.
“I didn’t know it was a bad thing.
“You do think you’re to blame. I thought I encouraged it. But I was very vulnerable. Children should be nurtured by their parents but I never had that.
“I used to play guitar and he said he taught guitar, and that’s how I came to go to his house.
“He used to walk me home, and one time he walked me through the woods and that’s when he raped me.
“And I never saw him again. A lot of people didn’t know it happened, I wouldn’t dare say anything to anybody. It was indescribable.
“I tried to stab myself in metalwork, just to get somebody to ask what was wrong.
“He said if I told anybody I would end up in a children’s home.
“Somehow I thought he loved me.”
Debbie says the incident, which took place in Lundwood in 1976, left a lasting mark on her life, and she has struggled with depression, alcoholism and made ‘around 20’ attempts to take her own life.
Although she has tried, she has never been able to hold down a job for long.
“I had some good jobs,” Debbie said.
“I owned a pub and used to be a boss on the Supertram. I used to sing as well, I was a Redcoat at Butlins.
“I could have been a doctor. But he took that away from me. I don’t know what I would have become.”
Debbie chose to face Shepherd, appearing in court without a screen or a video link - options usually given to victims in cases such as these.
“I had to re-live every moment in court,” she said.
“And the worst part is he didn’t admit what he’d put us through.”
Shepherd, 68, was found guilty of 11 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape involving the three women, all under 16 at the time, at Hull Crown Court last Tuesday.
Debbie cried when the verdict was read out, and says she ‘feels better every day’ since the trial ended.
However, she is still struggling with the effects of the incident on her life, and is on anti-depressants.
Her drinking started as a ‘coping mechanism’ when she saw or heard something that triggered flashbacks and panic attacks.
On one such occasion, she saw Shepherd while in a local supermarket and collapsed on the floor.
And once she had come forward to the police in 2016, Debbie found herself drinking more as a way of coping with having to relive events.
This led to a drink driving conviction, and an altercation with a customer at the pub in which she worked - which caused her to lose her job.
She said: “I lost my job and my home through drinking. I can’t get a job because of my criminal record. I made one mistake but I’m not a bad person.
“Quite a lot of my relationships with people have gone. Hopefully they can forgive me for what I’ve put them through.”
‘There could be more victims’
IT WAS after learning that her abuser Alan Shepherd may have worked with children in Barnsley that Debbie Stanfield said she had a ‘strong feeling’ that there may be other victims.
Three women came forward in the trial which saw Shepherd, 68, found guilty of one count of rape and 11 counts of indecent assault, at Hull Crown Court last Tuesday.
Debbie is appealing to anyone who may have suffered abuse to come forward.
“I believe there are other people,” she said.
“And I don’t want them to suffer like I have, it’s not fair to keep quiet. Even if they want to talk to me, I can do that.
“You don’t realise there’s help out there. The police have been fantastic, they were so compassionate.
“It might give me some closure if I’m helping someone else.”
If you wish to contact Debbie, you can do so via the Chronicle on 734203.
