November 2014
Man who raped girl aged six told his victim: ‘Don’t tell anyone, someone could be really mad’
A man who raped a six-year-old girl told his young victim: “Don’t tell anyone, someone could be really mad at me and I could go to prison”.
Garry Paul Reader, 31, was jailed for 11 years today after being found guilty of rape at a trial last month.
The court was told how sometime between May 2012 and May 2013 Reader, of Market Street, Little Lever, was left alone with his victim and her three siblings at a house in Bolton.
Reader was in bed upstairs when he called the girl into the bedroom, and she climbed in bed with him.
He asked if her brother was downstairs, before telling her: ‘Shhh, be quiet’. He then raped her.
After the attack, he told the girl: “Don’t tell anyone, someone could be really mad at me and I could go to prison.”
The abuse only came to light weeks later in August 2013 when the youngster told her friend about it, and was persuaded to speak to her mum about what had happened.
Speaking after the sentencing today, Detective Constable Kirsty Kaye said: “This is an appalling case, where the victim was not old enough to even comprehend the atrocity she was being subjected to.
“Reader has then used that classic tool of abusers and exploiters, fear, guilt-tripping the victim into keeping quiet.
“The victim and her family are being supported by specially trained officers, who we hope will assist them to come to terms with what has happened.
“This sentence goes some way to demonstrating that we will go to any length possible to punish those who target the innocent for their own gratification.”
