MUM ON HOW PALS SHUNNED I was raped by my close friend’s boyfriend.. as my little girl watched
CLAIRE Moore looked upon her pal’s boyfriend with admiration. He’d put a troubled teenage life behind him and became a born-again Christian.
The single mum-of-three thought of Carl Robinson as a “really genuine person” and even confided in him about her break-up from her partner.
But behind the virtuous mask, Robinson, 28, was far from the sympathetic “nice guy” she came to trust.
The alarm bells started ringing when she received two lewd texts from him out of the blue. She joked back that he must have mistakenly sent them to her instead of his girlfriend. But there had been no mistake. A few weeks later, two days after Christmas, her life was ripped apart in an explosion of horror as the monster stormed into her home and raped her in front of her crying youngest child, then a year old.
And as he left, he whispered in his terrified victim’s ear: “Tell anyone and I’ll kill you and your children.”
As Claire, 33, lay trembling in shock after the attack she knew she had to report Robinson to police – which she bravely did the next day.
But she had no idea it would cost her a circle of a dozen friends who, astonishingly, chose to believe him instead of her.
FRIGHTENING
Undaunted, she went to court to give evidence that helped put Robinson behind bars for nine years.
Today, echoing the message of the #MeToo campaign, she tells other rape victims too scared to tell their story: “Don’t be a silent victim – no matter what. Speak up and you will be heard.
“I’d tell any woman – or man – who has been raped to report it. Yes, it’s frightening – being raped stripped me of my dignity and turned my world upside down, but I found the strength to go to court. I know not everyone is lucky enough to see their attacker jailed. But at least you’ve taken some of the power back.”
Claire now rues the day she got involved with the group of women whose friendship meant she crossed paths with Robinson.
Lonely after splitting from her partner in 2015, she was a single mum on benefits barely able to afford a night out.
Then she met another young mum who lived nearby in Nottinghamshire – and when her children – Reuben, 10, Frankie, five, and Dellah, three – were with her ex, Claire would go round to her house. She soon found herself part of her new mate’s wider circle, including her friend’s cousin and Robinson. He told her he’d once served time for assault but had now found God.
“He seemed like a really genuine person – a bit of a lad about town, but nice,” says Claire. “I began to trust him
and even confided in him about my break-up. Nothing went off in my mind telling me there was anything wrong.” When Robinson took up with her friend’s cousin, she saw less of him – and barely at all by September 2016.
But a few weeks before Christmas, she received two suggestive texts from him. “I just sent a message back saying, ‘I think that might be for your girlfriend’ and ignored it,” says Claire. “I did think about telling his girlfriend, but I didn’t want to cause any trouble. Thinking back, I wish I had told her then maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
The day after Boxing Day, at 7am, Claire answered an insistent knocking on her door which woke up Dellah.
Wondering what Robinson, of Retford, wanted, she kept him at the door while she climbed the stairs to check on her baby daughter. “I was at the top of the