The Boyfriend Of My Best Friend Raped Me But My Friend Went Ahead And Married Him
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However groom, Royal Army Medical Corps officer Daniel Howard, was found guilty after a trial and jailed for seven years.
His victim, who has not been named, said: “I was meant to be bridesmaid at her wedding.
“We were meant to have children at similar times and raise them together. I only said something in the first place to try and protect April.
“I couldn’t have stood in church on her wedding day knowing what had happened and that it would most probably happen again.
“Our whole friendship group has become divided when I most needed my close friends.”
The victim was raped when she stayed at the couple’s house as her best friend April slept in the next room.
She went to hospital following the attack where nurses contacted police and Howard, 29, was arrested.
The woman, now 26, told how her life had been torn apart following the attack and her boyfriend at the time later killed himself.
She said: “He felt partly responsible for what had happened, he had turned his phone off that night. I couldn’t get hold of him.
“He never forgave himself for that. He always worried every time I went somewhere and wouldn’t sleep if I went out, it put a strain on us.
“Even though there were multiple things contributing to this it had quite an effect on him. He was always my rock and supported me through everything. I feel this is partly my fault.
“The rape made me a nightmare girlfriend. He shouldn’t have had to deal with anything like this.”
But a jury at Teesside crown court took just 90 minutes to see through his lies and find him guilty.
Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe QC, told him: “In the face of overwhelming DNA evidence to the contrary, you continued to deny this ever happened. This attempt to humiliate your victim severely exacerbated the wrong you had already done to her.”
Howard, from Darlington, County Durham, was jailed for seven years.
He married April last month.
