Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Rapist jailed for sexually assaulting teens in 1990s
AMAN who raped a teenage girl in Bristol has been jailed more than 25 years after his crime.
Julian Abrahams, of Craydon Road, in Bristol, sexually assaulted two girls in the 1990s and was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday to 12 years in prison.
The 55-year-old was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of indecent assault against two victims.
The trial heard how he sexually abused the two girls, who were aged 15 and 16 at the time.
Abrahams had denied the charges.
Abrahams’ crimes were first reported in 2020 by the woman who had been raped as a child.
She said she still wakes up with anxiety every morning and told police she wanted to protect other children from being violated by the paedophile Abrahams.
In her victim statement she said: “From the age of 16 I have had to live with this constant torture in my head about who I am as a person, always
These crimes may have happened several decades ago but that does not change the way we will treat such cases DS KATE HUGHES
blaming myself for what happened that night.
“I was always questioning what I could have done differently to stop it from happening, and never stopping to think there was not anything I could do as I was still a child who was very vulnerable and that the person who inflicted this on me was a very sick individual.
“I would like to thank everyone who has supported me over the years and throughout this. Without them this would have never been possible.
“I am still struggling to come to terms with everything. I wake up with anxiety every morning. I have thoughts throughout the day and have done now for more than 20 years.
“My only hope is that one day I may finally find a way to move on from this. He still denies what happened and I don’t think he will ever admit the truth but now I have the justice I deserve.
“My only hope is one day he has some remorse for what he knows he did and the thoughts of blame, guilt, shame and disgust can finally consume him instead of me.”
Detective Sergeant Kate Hughes said: “Both of these women have quite a few hours worth of work. My friend has 3D-printed a replica of the Pyramid Stage and it’s taken him a while to do that. I had people tell me early on it might be Coldplay and I’ve taken a risk with that to get it themed ready for Coldplay.”
Mr McGuire, a shop assistant at Asda, added: “I start thinking about them in September, getting the bits together, and now I’ll add bits to it slowly as it gets closer to the festival and as more ideas come into my head,” he said.
“In terms of the actual work doing the hat, it’s probably a couple of hundred hours, but I do bits here and there and getting all the bits together is more work.”
He said that this year’s hat will “hopefully” feature a small smoke machine in the form of a remotecontrolled shown incredible courage in reporting the awful sexual abuse they were subjected to. They have placed their trust in us to investigate and we are pleased for them that guilty verdicts were returned in this case.
“These crimes may have happened several decades ago but that does not change the way we will treat such cases. We will always believe victims and fully investigate the crimes they report.
“The sentence handed out today shows sexual predators such as Julian Abrahams can still be brought to justice regardless of how much time has passed. There is only one person responsible for the horrendous sexual abuse outlined in this case, and that is Abrahams.” vape device, along with battery-powered LED lights which can be solar-charged, and wristbands from his previous years at the festival along the top of the cap.
“It will be my 17th festival this coming year – I love the place, I love what Emily (Eavis) does and I love the whole camaraderie around the festival,” he said.
“There’s always such a variety of music, meeting friends. The music is probably secondary to me, it’s about how happy people are generally and the spirit of the place.”
As well as seeing rock band Viva La Vida, Mr McGuire said he is also looking forward to Dua Lipa and Shania Twain’s headline shows at the festival.