A rape victim's mother has spoken about the family's nightmare after a rape case was dropped on a legal technicality.

The Bradford girl, who was 16 at the time of the attack last year, was due to give evidence at a rape trial at Bradford Crown Court yesterday but the prosecution offered no evidence.

But John Richard Oswin, 31, of Southowram, Halifax, who had been charged with the offence, was given an indefinite life sentence after he admitted two rapes and two indecent assaults in the Halifax area between December 1993 and September 1997.

Judge Coles said the public deserved to be protected from Oswin.

The mother of the girl, who is now 18, said: "We needed to know someone goes to jail for her sake."

The knifepoint assault took place on a footpath on a June morning last year, during the teenager's GCSE examinations. Although under sedation, the youngster had gone to school to sit an English exam only two days after the attack. She took a year out of school and is now studying for A levels, hoping to become a doctor.

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, still suffers nightmares. She has had trouble concentrating on school work with the prospect of the court case looming over her, but had been willing to give evidence in court.

Her bravery was praised by detectives who worked on the case. Detective Sergeant Paul Fountain, of Toller Lane CID, said after the case collapsed: "We are happy with the police investigation and we have given the family full support through the whole ordeal she has had to face. We're bitterly disappointed in the outcome."

The girl's mother said police officers had worked immensely hard on the case and had supported the family throughout it. But she said the attack had blighted the teenager's life.

"Our children are so well-protected with information about all the things you need to equip your children with to be safe. So you think if this can happen to our daughter at this time, anything can happen. It has put a fear in me. It took months before I could let the younger children go to school on their own. If the telephone rings after they have left for school, I imagine the worst."

'He would strike again if released'

Jailing Oswin, Judge Gerald Coles said he would be likely to commit more offences if released.

A psychiatrist had reported that Oswin was a serious sex offender but there was no medical treatment for his personality defect. Oswin's first rape, at Greetland, near Halifax, in 1993, was on a 17-year-old girl. An indecent assault on two friends, aged 15 and 16, was committed in January 1997 in the Salterhebble area of Halifax. In the second rape, again in the Salterhebble area, a 20-year-old woman feared for her life when Oswin threatened to kill her unless she stayed on the canal towpath while he fled. Oswin was arrested in December 1997.

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