A human rights lawyer has spoken out about blaming herself after she was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend when she was just 13.
Kim Fawcett said she was groomed and raped by Robert Stuart McClelland when she was a teenager. Her mother sided with him when the authorities became involved, she claims.
McClelland, who worked as a truck driver, was convicted of indecent assault, sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 at Chester Crown Court. He was charged in 2003.
Trauma: Kim Fawcett accused her mother’s boyfriend Robert McClelland of sexually abusing her when she was just 13 years old
Support: The human rights lawyer is reaching out to other victims to remind them it was not their fault. Ms Fawcett, who lives in Bristol, has set up a support group for others
He was sent to prison for six years in 2004 and placed on the sex offenders register – but only served two years of his sentence.
Speaking to the Bristol Post, Ms Fawcett explained that she told herself her mental health problems did not come from the abuse or her mother choosing McClelland over her.
‘In my mind, that wasn’t the effects of child abuse. It wasn’t the consequence of having a mother cut you out and side with the abuser when the police finally came knocking.’
Ms Fawcett, who lives in Bristol, has since been diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder, and, after failing to find the support she needed, she decided to set up a support group for victims of abuse.
The group has since inspired about 200 victims to sign up in the past five months.
She wrote about her experiences in her own words, and said she still sometimes feels a huge burden of shame, which can be too much to bear.
‘But those days are getting fewer and further between. And I know – I know in my gut now – that what happened truly wasn’t my fault.’
Abuse: When she was just 14, she discovered that she was pregnant, and was told by McClelland to have an abortion – something she was not sure she wanted
Ms Fawcett also reached out to other victims: ‘So if you are reading this and any of the above rings true for you, from one “I-wasn’t-really-abused-I-deserved-it” person to another – you aren’t the exception to the rule.’
Speaking to MailOnline, Ms Fawcett said after he raped her for the first time, he ‘boasted’ about taking her virginity to his colleagues and would pick her up from school so he could carry out sex attacks on her.
The first time she was raped by him, she was sent to go and stay with McClelland at his home in Oswestry, Shropshire.
The lawyer, who was 13 at the time, said: ‘After going out driving together, we went back to his house and he bought me a big bottle of Smirnoff Ice. I started feeling excited and giddy but then really confused and dizzy after drinking it, which I realise now I was drunk.
‘I know in my gut now – that what happened truly wasn’t my fault’: In her own words, Ms Fawcett explained that she finally understands she did not cause her abuse
‘He asked me to sit on his lap and started touching me. I was really confused as to why he was doing this as I really liked him. I froze still. He kept putting my hands on him and trying to kiss me. I just couldn’t move.
‘Eventually I managed to say that I was going to go to bed. I made it to the stairs to go and sleep in his daughter’s room. But then he grabbed me by my wrists and dragged me into his room and it first happened.’
Ms Fawcett said he then scratched the date of the first rape on a bottle as a sick memento.
When she was just 14, she discovered that she was pregnant, and was told by McClelland to have an abortion – something she was not sure she wanted.
She also contracted sexually transmitted diseases.
‘You aren’t the exception to the rule’: The human rights lawyer spoke out to support other victims of sexual abuse
Ms Fawcett said McClelland scratched the date of the first rape on a bottle as a sick memento
A family friend encouraged Ms Fawcett to go to the police and McClelland was arrested.
‘I just knew if I didn’t, he would do it again to more girls’, she said.
During a search of his property, the officers found the bottle McClelland had scratched the date on to and the CDs he had purchased for her. They also downloaded the many text messages McClelland had sent to her.
During the trial, his defence said Ms Fawcett had been blackmailing him for sex because she was jealous of her own mother.
He claimed Ms Fawcett, who was by then 15, said she would tell everyone he was a paedophile if he didn’t.
Ms Fawcett said: ‘I was 13 and 13-year-olds do not have the capacity to consent to a sexual relationship with their mother’s boyfriend.
‘He was my mother’s partner and was in his late 40s at the time. He knew what he was doing.’