'˜I'll never forget how he forced himself on me...'

Davina Ayrton stood emotionless in the dock as she was sentenced for the 2004 rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Portsmouth.

In a statement read out in court the victim told how she had ‘never forgotten’ the rape and ‘lived in fear’.

Reading the victim’s impact statement, prosecutor Chris Stopa said: ‘I was a young girl when David Ayrton raped me.

‘At the time I didn’t trust the police and did not want to make a statement.

‘As the years have passed I’ve never forgotten the incident.

‘I’ll never forget how he forced himself on me, I was hysterical and I lived in fear all the time. At the time I thought I was a real tough cookie. It showed I was not.’

She added: ‘I was no longer that teenager that ran away.’

Ayrton – who has an IQ of 70 and was known as David at the time – will serve her sentence in a male prison.

Sentencing, judge Ian Pearson said: ‘The victim was aged 15, she was a vulnerable child, absconding from school, absconding from home.

‘On the night in question a significant quantity of drink had been taken and you had sex with her without her consent, which you now acknowledge, in a garage.

‘And with the passage of time it’s quite clear the traumatic effects of that night have not lessened with regards to the victim.

‘She’s done well with her life. She’s recovered to some extent but her victim personal statement makes it absolutely clear the effects and scars will never leave her.’

Ayrton was given a hospital order in 2007 for arson reckless as to whether life was endangered but was conditionally released.

She also has previous convictions for seven counts of possession of indecent images of children in 2014.

Ann-Marie Talbot, for Ayrton, said the defendant showed remorse and accepts the sex was non-consensual.

Ms Talbot said Ayrton had been sexually abused between the ages of eight and 16.

A report described Ayrton, 34, as risk to teenage girls.

The judge added: ‘I do accept that your background is a difficult one, you were the subject of sexual abuse.’

Ayrton, of Heywood Summer House, South Gorley, Fordingbridge, denied the rape, which happened between October and November 2004, but was found guilty by a jury in January.

She must sign the sex offenders’ register for life.