My abuse ordeal at hands of ‘creepy’ neighbour
A TEENAGE girl says she had ‘the last days of her childhood ruined’ by a creepy neighbour who took her on work experience, then groped her.
Rebecca Moores was just 15 when the man who lived next door – an army veteran and a family friend – touched her repeatedly at his mother’s house and in his van.
For months she held back from telling anyone, even when Matthew Westwell, then 44, sent her obscene text messages.
Rebecca, now 19, has bravely waived her anonymity to speak out about her ordeal after Westwell was locked up.
Now she hopes others who have been attacked will read her story and feel confident enough to tell someone.
“I would say the relationship between him and my parents, especially my stepdad, was close”, Rebecca told the M.E.N.
“He was someone they trusted and who I trusted and I never expected any of this to happen, especially given my age.”
Westwell lived next door to Rebecca, her mum Lindsay Moores, stepdad Rik and her little brother in Bramhall, Stockport, in September 2015. He was good friends with her parents, with Westwell having watched her grow up.
Rebecca then said he began to act ‘very odd and creepily’ in the weeks leading up to the sex attack.
She added: “I didn’t say anything as I was scared to cause problems as he was literally next door. I did think it was weird but I never in a million years think it would turn physical.
“I was 15 at the time and my parents wanted me to start preparing to get into work. He latched onto that and said ‘I will take her with me tomorrow.’ Obviously I thought it was a bit weird, as 15-year-old girls aren’t normally into plumbing. But I thought it would end the argument about work experience.”
Westwell took her to his mother’s house saying there was some work that needed doing there.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told at his sentencing hearing that he ‘prodded’ her breasts at least five times that day, before groping her in his van on the way home.
Afterwards he told her: “You’ll be 16 soon, then the fun can really start.”
Speaking after the case, Rebecca said: “There was no one there and it was if he knew (his mum) wouldn’t be around and we’d have the house to ourselves.”
“And it didn’t seem like there was any work to do. The first time he touched me it was very obvious what he was doing.
“I think it was like a ‘trial’ to see how I would react. And I didn’t exactly start screaming or causing a scene. But what was I supposed to do? He’s a big man, three times my height and weight, he used to be in the army, and I was alone with him in a house, that I didn’t know, in the middle of nowhere.
“My mind was just racing with what I was going to say when I got home. Because I knew my parents would ask ‘how did it go?’ and I was faced with either telling them the truth and causing a huge issue with our neighbour or say nothing and have him living next door to me having done this.”
Following the assaults, Westwell began to ‘bombard’ Rebecca with messages over a number of months, many of which were sexually explicit.
Rebecca said: “He would often be horrible to me, calling me fat or spotty when he knew I was self-conscious about my weight and appearance.”
On Christmas Day, Westwell sent Rebecca another sickening text.
“That’s where everything came to light. My stepdad confronted him. He denied it but they were adamant I should go to police and he was arrested. He moved the next day and that was the last time I saw him until I saw him in the courtroom.”
Westwell, of Axminster Walk, Bramhall, initially denied one charge of sexual assault and a planned trial was adjourned before he changed his plea to guilty.
At the sentencing hearing on February 28, Westwell’s barrister Thomas McKail said it was ‘wholly reckless behaviour’ but ‘totally out of character’ for the army veteran who had served in Iraq, as well as being posted in Germany and Canada.
Sentencing him to eight months in prison, Judge Mark Savill told Westwell: “You were in an unequal position of power and there was a duty of care towards this teenager who was vulnerable, and you were aware of that.” Matthew Westwell