�A Rainham woman who was abused over a period of years as a child by her stepfather has finally seen him jailed – after she became a law student.

Tina Renton was just six when the abuse started at the hands of David Moore.

He subjected her to years of attacks in the 1980s and up until 1993 at addresses in Hornchurch, Rush Green and Harold Hill.

She feared he had got away with it but years later while she was studying her law degree at Essex University she discovered Moore could still be prosecuted.

Tina, now 36, told the Recorder: “It was only in the final year of my law course when we covered the Sexual Offences Act that I realised I could prosecute him for an offence from more than 20 years ago.”

Stress

In 2009 she graduated and told police about the horrific attacks.

She said: “I recognised then that I had the confidence to go forth with the support network I had and could go to the police.”

Lorry driver Moore, of Vange, Essex, was jailed for 14 years last Friday after a trial at Southend Crown Court. He was found guilty of three counts of rape, three counts of gross indecency with a child and seven counts of indecent assault – the first offence he was convicted of was in 1986, the last was in 1993. Tina has taken the unusual step of waiving her anonymity to condemn her stepfather publicly for the years of abuse he put her through.

She said about hearing the sentence: “I can’t describe how happy I was, especially for the fact he had got so long.”

Tina, who separated from her husband because of the stress of the case, said she struggled through her teenage years and even now has “a deep mistrust” of men.

She said she told her mother and a teacher at the time but neither intervened and she did not have the confidence to tell police.

“When I was 14 I didn’t know where to go and what help was available.

“He took my life and my childhood away. I can’t get that back. But he is going to pay. It’s justice at last.”