HEART pounding, Kaitlin Womack felt waves of revulsion in the pit of her stomach as the police mugshot flashed up on her Facebook feed. It was the photo of a man she knew far too well and the horrifying trauma the monster had put her through when she was aged nine suddenly came flooding back. The man was child sex offender Kert Birtwistle and seeing his face on her screen horrified the 25-year-old who had been harbouring her own awful secret about him for almost a decade.
Birtwistle was Kaitlin's former neighbour and when she was nine, he'd subjected her to three sexual assaults while she played at his house, including touching her vagina under her swimming costume. Kaitlin, from Preston, Lancs, recalls: “The abuse affected my life in so many ways. “I struggled with crippling anxiety and depression as a teenager.
I self-harmed to numb the pain. Read more real life stories “I suffered in silence for so long.” Now, Kaitlin, and works in insurance , is courageously waiving her right to anonymity to help encourage other survivors to report their abusers to the police .
She says: “They never deserve to walk the streets again. “I hope that my story will encourage other potential victims to come forward.” Most read in Fabulous Growing up, Kaitlin was neighbours with Birtwistle, and they went to the same primary school.
Though Birtwistle was four years older, he often invited Kaitlin and other children from the neighbourhood to his house, though she was not particularly.
