Child rapist jailed 30 years on from the two offences

A woman who was raped by a man in a Leeds flat when she was a child told him that he continues to ruin her life, 30 years later.

- by Nick Frame

Derrick Beach was convicted after a trial at Leeds Crown Court of three counts of rape involving two victims and coercive control, and handed a 16-year jail sentence this week.

His first victim, who was around 13 in the mid 1990s, had her victim impact statement read to the court during his sentencing hearing.

Read by prosecutor Catherine Duffy, the woman, who is now in her 40s, said she had put the painful memories of Beach in her "mental filing cabinet and thrown away the key". She added: "At the age of 13 he ruined my life. Never did I ever think this would happen to me. He stole my childhood.