Fleetwood man who raped young girl in abandoned petrol station is jailed

George Preston, 21, of Windsor Place, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape of a child under 13 and one count of rape of an 18-year-old woman at Preston Crown Court on Monday.

One of Preston's victims, who cannot be named, was just 12-years-old when she was raped by him in an 'abandoned gas shelter which was dirty with no windows'. She said: "George didn’t just rape me, take my innocence away and my relations, but he also killed that person I ought to have been and that person I once was. No sentence long enough could ever begin for me to bring the real me back because one day he will be walking down the road just like nothing had happened."

She told the court: "I am terrified of men, groups of people, loud noise, and people touching me. I get consistent flashbacks and every day I will have a panic attack or a breakdown... It is a constant reminder of everything George did.

"I am suicidal and I self-harm. I have fallen off the rails countless time, to which most people are unaware of except my closest friends. I am permanently scarred by what George did to me and there is no escape of that. I will forever have to carry this along with me. I will have to grow up knowing that each day I will still have been that victim, that child who got raped.

"There’s a question I have always wanted to know the answer of and that is why.

"George has ruined my life, my views, and my mental and physical state and I do not see myself getting past this. When I look into the future all I see is a black hole. George took my life away from the first time he abused me, and I will never get my life back. I lay there at night thinking of if I had killed myself how people would move on and carry on being happy. George has taken my life away he killed the person inside that I once was, and I do not see a sentence long enough to let the lives of his victims ever build back up to how they were."

Preston was sentenced to nine years in prison, and received a 10 year restraining order preventing him from contacting either of his victims. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register.

His victim, who is now 17, said: "I was once a happy child excited to see what their future held and what they would experience. Yet instead, I’m a lost teenager with no future in their eyes and no hope or aspiration for the future. I see a dark hole that I cannot reach out of. I am trapped and I will never be set free. George will always have that hold over me.

"I would have loved to see what my life held for me if I had not met George; I would have loved to know what I would have achieved and what I could have built for myself rather than it being taken away from me.

"I know there are a lot of things I could say, but to this day I am still terrified of what he may do. I might be stronger minded and stronger physically now than I was when I was 11, but I could still not face him and say what I think. That man will forever terrify me, the things that resemble him and the places where he made me go will forever be a constant reminder of what he did... I will never forgive him of what he has done."