Woman identifies man who raped her 30 years ago while still a schoolgirl

Manchester, UK: After 30 years of living a "care-free" life, a rapist's secret past came back to haunt him after a victim exposed his crimes.

Confronting Christopher Martin in front of his family, she asked: "Do you remember me?"

In 1980, he offered to walk his schoolgirl victim home from a social club in south Manchester.

Instead of getting the then 15-year-old home safely, he marched her into a park and subjected her to a violent rape, reports Manchester Evening News.

Martin, 51, a landscape gardener of Bethnall Drive, Fallowfield, went on to live what the sentencing judge called a ‘care-free’ life.

Meanwhile, the victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was so traumatised by the attack that she felt unable to report it to the police at the time and kept her silence for more than 30 years.

The only person she ever confided in was her best friend at the time of the attack.

But in 2013 the woman spotted Martin a number of times and finally went to police and told them of her ordeal.

The first time she saw him was June 2013 at the Didsbury Festival in Didsbury Park where he was enjoying himself with his family.

She approached him and said: “Are you Chris Martin? Do you remember me?” and then ran off.

Days later she saw him again at a Didsbury pub in what the sentencing judge described as a ‘moment of truth’ encounter.

She later went to police.

Martin denied rape in a Manchester Crown Court trial, saying he was the victim of mistaken identity and that he had never met the victim.

The jury did not believe him and he has now been jailed for seven years.

Martin’s barrister said he had lived ‘a very ordinary, unremarkable, blameless life’, working consistently and caring for his elderly parents and disabled older brother.

She said: “He has two very small children. Those two children are of an age where they will notice their father is no longer present.

"The two children inevitably will feel the consequences of the custodial sentence which is imposed upon Mr Martin."

The court heard Martin swore at his weeping victim, who was repeatedly slapped around the face as she tried to fight him off during the midnight attack.

She was left ‘covered in blood’, and was abandoned by him after begging him not to leave her in the dark, isolated corner of the park on her own.

Just minutes earlier, she had placed her trust in him by agreeing to walk home with him.

“She was excited at the prospect of being walked home by you”, said Judge David Stockdale QC, sentencing.

“She thought you were something of a catch, and that your offer meant an indication that you were interested in her. As it turned out you were interested in her, but in all the wrong ways.”

Police said the victim finally had the courage to come forward after seeing him again and reading in the press about a number of historic rape cases.

Martin was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

After the case, Detective Constable Laura Hughes said: “The victim was so scared after she had been raped that she felt she could not report it to the police.

“However recently she saw Martin a number of times and her memories of the attack came back to her and this along with the media reports regarding historic rapes gave her the confidence to come forward and report the incident to the police.

“I would like to praise her for having the courage to come forward and speak to us over three decades after the attack happened.

“I hope that this sentence provides some encouragement to other people who may have been victims of this sort of abuse to report it to the police.”