A schoolgirl who killed herself after having sex with her 39-year-old flying instructor saw the encounter as rape, a court heard.
Cherrell Evans, 13, was found hanged in her bedroom within months of being preyed on by Paul Nicholls, a jury was told.
Today another alleged teenage victim of the Air Training Corps leader said that the abuse was directly to blame for Cherrell's death.
Suicide: Cherrell Evans, 13, committed suicide after an alleged sexual affair with 39-year-old Nicholls
The 15-year-old girl, who said Nicholls also had sex with her several times, reported him to police after her friend and fellow cadet killed herself.
She said: 'As time progressed I realised it wasn't normal for a man triple your age to do something like that.'
The court heard that during police interviews after Cherrell's death in December 2007, the girl told officers: 'Cherrell did this because of what he was doing. It's his fault she's dead and nobody else's.
'He was there as a father figure but became something else. She didn't refer to it as sex. She referred to it as rape. Cherrell is gone because of him.
'The teenager had already told the court that Cherrell became scared when Nicholls sent a text message apparently suggesting he wanted both girls to engage in a threesome.
Accused: Air Training Corps leader Paul Nicholls denies having sexual relationships with underage girls
And yesterday his alleged victim said that when things did not go his way, Nicholls would become a ' horrible' person.
The girl, who is now 16, said: 'That's why she was scared. She saw what he was being like with me because I wouldn't go back to him. We were both scared when it came to the point he wanted the two of us.'
The girl, who cannot be identified, denied that her friend had been upset about anything else before her death.
She said: 'She talked to me about suicide the last time I saw her.'
Cross-examining, Tracy Lloyd-Nesling asked the girl if she was making up the allegations as 'revenge' for what had happened to Cherrell.
The girl replied: 'I'm telling the truth. There are bits I can't remember but that's because I was a 15-year-old child being raped by the man I saw as a father.
'I believe he raped Cherrell, she told me he raped her. I believe he was the reason she took her life.'
Asked about her relationship with Nicholls, the teenager said: 'I didn't have sex with Paul, he had sex with me.
'He made me feel like no one else cared, like no one else would believe me and no one else would listen.'
She added: 'I came forward, I told everyone what he did to me because I'd lost my 13-year-old friend. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt.'
The girl said she had slept with Nicholls ten times between June and August 2007 before he moved on to Cherrell.
The younger girl killed herself in December that year at her home in Rhondda, South Wales.
The witness added: 'Cherrell wanted to go to the police but I wasn't ready. She started to say she couldn't live life like this.'
Nicholls, of Pontygwaith, Rhondda, denies three charges of sexual activity and one charge of attempting sexual activity with a 15-year-old.
The trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court continues.
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1 comment:
I don't understand why they have the word rape in inverted commas. Children don't 'have sex' with adults, they are raped by them. I thought that was a given.
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