Teenage girl raped as she slept waited 20 years for justice

Young victim’s mother did not believe her

A Canterbury schoolgirl raped as she was sleeping had to wait 20 years for justice.

The teenager reported the attack immediately but was not believed by her mother and had to endure two decades of pain and hurt before a jury convicted her attacker.

Now, Patrick Mugford has finally been jailed after hearing how his victim was so traumatised by the attack she ended up drinking three litres of cider a day “to black everything out”.

Mugford, 68, sat in the dock of Maidstone Crown Court complaining to security staff “I’m going to die” as details of his late-night attack were outlined.

Prosecutor Allister Walker said of the victim: “When she told her mother what had happened the morning after the incident she was scolded.

“She bore the shame of the incident alone for 20 years.”

It was only when the victim saw another court report about her attacker’s crimes in 2019 that she called police.

She told officers how she was asleep when she heard someone enter her bedroom and climb in bed, telling her: “Come on, you know you want it.”

Mr Walker said the teenager was able to identify her attacker because his skin was “scratchy and scaly”.

Mugford was convicted in 2012 of raping two children, but it was only in 2019 that the Canterbury victim reported the attack

after reading an online report about the earlier case.

Now, Mugford has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for the rape and indecent assault.

In a statement read to the court, his victim said when she wasn’t believed she ran away and lived for a while “on the streets”, downing three litres of cider a day to cope.

She told how she was once found in a coma after a suicide attempt.

But the brave mother added she is now determined the attack will not have a negative impact on the rest of her life.

The court heard Mugford is partially deaf and suffering from diabetes and has a history of having strokes.

The Judge, Recorder Patricia Hitchcock QC, told the paedophile he had attacked a vulnerable schoolgirl.

‘When she told her mother what had happened the morning after the incident she was scolded...’

Patrick Mugford is behind bars