‘Suicide’ of rape survivor abused by running coach
A RAPE survivor who helped to jail her predatory running coach has taken her own life, her friend who was also abused has revealed.
A tribute to the woman – known only as Katie – was posted online by former Sky Sports presenter Charlie Webster, who said her ‘courageous and strong’ friend was found dead at her home in Australia on Sunday.
Both Ms Webster – who presented a BBC documentary about coach Paul North called Nowhere To Run: Abused By Our Coach – and Katie were victims of his.
He was jailed for ten years for multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of rape in 2002.
The 40-year-old presenter wrote on Twitter: ‘I’m so sad, hurt and pained to say Katie has sadly passed away.’
Ms Webster explained that she and Katie, whose parents live in Britain, met through being part of the same running club in Sheffield when they were children.
She said the pair were best friends at the time, describing the running group as being ‘like a family’.
In 2021, Ms Webster went on to make the hard-hitting documentary about how their coach preyed on the young girls – grooming her and her friends and subjecting some of them to horrific sexual assault.
He had been arrested when Ms Webster was 19 and in the show she recalled reading a newspaper article detailing his crimes: ‘It was only
‘She was courageous and strong’
then I realised I wasn’t the only one he had abused. I just felt utter embarrassment.’
She then tracked down her old running group to speak to them about their own experiences of being abused by North.
Ms Webster wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help Katie’s mother repatriate her body from Australia: ‘Katie is my friend, was part of my running group that I made my BBC documentary about. Katie died by suicide. We were so tight-knit, we shared everything. Our ups – winning races and smashing personal bests – and our downs – pushing ourselves in training and the pressures our coach put on us.
‘What Katie and I didn’t share, as did none of us at the time, is the sexual abuse we were suffering at the hands of our coach.’
She said Katie bravely faced North in court and helped put him behind bars, adding: ‘She was incredibly courageous, strong and so brave to stand up in court and testify against him. Katie saved so many other children from being sexually abused by this abhorrent rapist.
‘We know there were girls abused before us but Katie made sure there were none after us.’
Katie went on to make a new life for herself in Australia, Ms Webster said but added: ‘The thing about the trauma of sexual abuse, it doesn’t just go away. We want to do everything to honour Katie the way she deserves… to continue to help other survivors of abuse and for Katie to be grieved and celebrated.’
As of yesterday, the GoFundMe page had received more than £6,000 of the £5,000 target after just one day of being online.
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit www.samaritans.org