Trans woman's rape victim speaks out over horrific ordeal

Davina Ayrton was convicted and jailed for eight years last month for the rape of the victim, then 15, in 2004.

The 34-year-old, who was known as David at the time, raped the girl in a garage in Portsmouth.

In an interview with the Metro newspaper the victim said she was only told about Ayrton living as a woman a few days before the trial.

She said: ‘It doesn’t change the way I feel about what happened – she still raped me. For me it was closure – regardless of the outcome of the case I just needed someone to listen to me.’

She added: ‘I kept getting flashbacks of the attack and nightmares. It tormented me so much I tried to kill myself.

‘I didn’t want to tell anyone because I didn’t think I’d be believed.

‘I was ashamed of what happened. I used to think that no-one could hurt me and when he overpowered me I knew I had been wrong.’

The court heard that Ayrton raped the schoolgirl on a sofa in the garage, despite the victim trying to push him away.

The woman added: ‘But then he pushed me onto the sofa and raped me. I shouted at him to get off me and I tried to hit him but he had my arms trapped.

‘I shouted for my friends but they were drunk and asleep and couldn’t hear me.

‘Soon I gave up as nothing I was doing was working.

‘I lay still to get it finished with. It felt like hours.’

During the trial at Portsmouth Crown Court, a jury was told police investigated but the victim did not want to get involved.

The case was revisited when a care worker reported Ayrton had confessed.

While sentencing Ayrton, Judge Ian Pearson said: ‘The victim was aged 15, she was a vulnerable child, absconding from school, absconding from home.

‘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, of Heywood Sumner House, in Fordinbridge, was jailed for eight years in March and put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

She denied one charge of rape but was found guilty in January.

In a victim statement read out in court, she said: ‘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.’