ONE OF the victims of a paedophile soldier jailed for 22 years has told a judge: “No one can give me back my childhood.”

Handing down the sentence to former bandsman Royden Davies, Judge Peter Crabtree said: “You have shown no remorse for your behaviour as a ruthless paedophile.”

He likened the man’s offending against two girls, committed over almost a decade from the mid-1960s, to a “campaign of rape and other sexual offences”.

Last week, jurors at Swindon Crown Court found Davies guilty of rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault. They were unable to reach a verdict on an allegation of buggery.

The vile assaults were carried out while Davies, now 77, was serving with the British Army. Last week, jurors heard how one girl had been raped in Warminster.

Reading her victim personal statement to Salisbury Crown Court yesterday, one of his victims said: “What happened to me was horrendous. It will never go away. No one can ever give me back my childhood.

“I want him to know what he did to me was awful.

“I can relive what he did to me; it can be a noise or a door shutting or something takes me back. I’m taken back to feeling the terror that I felt, a little girl. I can wake up in bed frozen with the thought that he’s going to come for me.

“I lie awake for hours on end thinking about what happened. I relive what happened. I still have bad dreams and nightmares. I’m terrified of the dark. I come downstairs at two o’clock in the morning, I put a light on just because I can. You can’t get me anymore.

“I eat to comfort myself. I can sit downstairs on my own with a light on and eat. I don’t know why I do it. I think it’s just to take my mind off him.”

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Swindon Crown Court, where Davies' trial was heard 

The woman, who cannot be identified, said Davies’ actions had affected her relationships with loved ones and her mental health. 

She said: “I lived through what happened and I have come out the other side. I am scared and battered and bruised but I’m stronger now and I won’t let anyone hurt me again.

“I want him to know the pain he’s put me through. I want him to know he’ll never hurt me again.”

Davies’ second victim said the abuse had left her suffering long-term effects including sleeplessness, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, eating disorders and feelings of worthlessness.

In her victim statement, which was read to the court by a family member, she said the last 54 years had been 10 times worse than the "horrible and cruel abuse" that Davies subjected her to.

“I want Royden to know he will never hurt me again and I am not a victim, I am a survivor,” she said.

She said the Crown Prosecution Service had initially refused to charge Davies. The case only got to court after the victims asked prosecutors to review the decision.

Barry Kogan, mitigating, said his client had lived his life on a knife edge since the police began investigating the allegations in 2017.

Davies had been “going to bed with this case the last thing on his mind before going to sleep, losing many hours of sleep, and then waking with it dawning on his mind really like a black cloud”.

In the past year he had lost six stone. He had a number of health problems; surgeons recently removed cysts from his spine. His wife, with whom he had not been in a relationship when he committed his crimes, also suffered from poor health.

He had left the army with an excellent service record. He was part of a male voice choir.

Mr Kogan asked the judge to impose a sentence that would mean his client would not give up all hope of being released before his death.

Davies, of Hendy, near Swansea, was sentenced to a total of 22 years’ imprisonment. As an offender of particular concern he must serve an additional year on licence. He will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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