Terminally ill girl revealed sex abuse in diary before she died

TERMINALLY ILL teenage girl showed diary entries to her mother in which she revealed that she had been sexually abused by an elderly man.

- PHILIP DEWEY

She died of cancer before her abuser was brought to justice and jailed.

Leonard Rickard, 76, took advantage of his victim when she was just seven years old while he was babysitting her.

He sexually abused her by kissing her when she played as a princess and went on to touch her sexually and made her touch him.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court was told the defendant was living at the Coed Hills in St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan, between 2012 and 2013.

The defendant made and rented out yurts at Coed Hills and it was in a yurt that he first sexually assaulted his victim. She was pretending to be a princess and Rickard told her he “could be her prince” before kissing her on the lips.

His abuse of the victim escalated to him performing oral sex upon her and forcing her to hold his penis. The incident occurred when he tried to incite her to perform oral sex upon him.

The victim was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and told her mother she needed to tell her about what had happened to her.