THE victim of a child sex abuser has spoken of her relief at hearing he has been jailed three decades later.

A jury last week found Malcolm Webb guilty of four counts of gross indecency with a child under 14 and a judge at Swindon Crown Court jailed him for two years.

For his victim, who was seven when the abuse happened between 1983 and 1985, it means she can finally put it behind her.

“It is like a massive weight has been lifted and I can actually begin to live again,” she told the Advertiser.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: “It was one of those things where I didn’t realise what had actually happened until I was 14.”

She then told her mother, but wasn’t ready to take it any further at that stage. As a teenager going through puberty and trying to get through school, she didn’t feel strong enough.

Although she reported it to police when she was in her early 20s she didn’t pursue it. Then in 2013 in the wake of huge publicity about allegations against Jimmy Savile, she tried again, this time determined to see it through.

“I felt that I would be believed, which I didn’t think was the case 10 years ago,” she said. “I also think so much has changed since the Savile revelations.”

Three years later she was in the courtroom giving evidence against Webb, 69, of Sheerwold Close, Stratton.

“The only point I regretted it was on Monday afternoon, standing in court, being told I had made it up.”

She told how the abuse had affected her ever since she realised what had happened, even though she has been through counselling.

“After it stopped I used to have panic attacks.” At the time they were put down to the fact she had a strict teacher, but she said: “Now staff and teachers would see it for what it was. In the mid 1980s there wasn’t the awareness that there is now.”

“You live with this every single day. The decisions you make in terms of relationships you can pinpoint back to this.”

She paid tribute to the detective involved in the case and the support she had received from the police. “They were very good at keeping in touch with me.”

She was not in court for the verdict on Thursday but was relieved when she was told Webb had been sent down.

“I think it is about justice. It is about getting it out there on record,” she said.

“I don’t know what would have happened had he not been found guilty. I think that would have been devastating.”