Rape survivor urges other victims to contact police

A woman who came forward 30 years after she was raped shares her story to encourage others to contact police.

Mary Sharp, who has waived her right to anonymity, was raped by her then-boyfriend Martin Butler as they visited Mevagissey, Cornwall, in August 1988.

Butler, 61, of York Road, Stevenage, was jailed for 11 years in April for the rape.

Ms Sharp, 54, said: "If it's going to affect your life... and it will - you should say something."

She said she came forward to police in 2018 with details of her attack after seeing allegations on Facebook that suggested there could be other victims of her attacker.

Recalling her attack, she said Butler "nearly killed me that night".

After spending a night out in Mevagissey, Ms Sharp, who was 20 at the time, said the couple went to bed only for her to wake to find she had been tied up and was being raped.

She freed herself after Butler untied her and released his grip from around her mouth and nose.

Ms Sharp said: "After he did the attack he went downstairs and I followed him down and asked what happened.

"He just blamed me, just pushed me away, grabbed my hand and threw me.

"I was so utterly scared - I just ran upstairs and barricaded myself in the bedroom."

At the time she felt unable to report the crime, but she said she went to the police after seeing the post.

She said: "I went through this battle in my head and in the end I thought to myself, if I put the TV on one day and found that he had actually killed someone, and I knew about it because I saw the post and said nothing, I couldn't live with myself."

Ms Sharp, from Buckinghamshire, added that speaking about the attack publicly gave her a sense of freedom.

"I don't care that people know purely because it's not my shame," she said.

"I'm fed up with wearing it. I'm fed up with having to carry this burden all the time, and the more I tell people, the more freedom in my soul I get."

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