A VICTIM of sexual assault on Dunstable Downs is warning other girls of the dangers of meeting people on the internet after watching her “smirking” attacker sent to prison.
Rebecca Read, now 17, was just 15 when she was groomed by 26-year-old Tony Hatton over social networking website Tagged.com.
Rebecca, who has decided to waive her anonymity, told the Gazette: “I started talking to this bloke who said he was 18 going on 19. He asked for webcam, photos of me, my phone number, my address. He was getting clingy, so I stayed away.”
But a few months later, the pair began talking through the site again when Hatton told Rebecca he was going through a tough time with an ex-girlfriend.
She said: “I couldn’t just turn around and call him a creep so I was being nice to him. He asked to meet up for coffee and I thought it should be all right, not really thinking. You hear about things on the internet and you don’t realise, you think ‘it’s not going to be me, it’s not going to be me’ – but it was me.”
Rebecca met Hatton at about 5.30pm on July 5, 2010, in Morrison’s car park in Leighton Buzzard, where he made her get into his car.
She said: “Stupidly enough I thought he might be a really nice guy, thought he might be the one.
“He took me to Dunstable Downs and we were walking along and he was very hands-on. He was touching my bottom. I thought it was a bit much. I was scared, I was more into holding hands.
“He was really nice at the beginning but he abused me, then told me that if I tell anyone, they’re going to think I’m a dirty slag.
“There must have been 100 people at Dunstable Downs that day who could have done something, but they walked off thinking it was natural.
“I want to get this out to girls, if it does happen to you no one is going to think any different of you.
“At the end of the day it happens to a lot of people.”
Rebecca, who now lives in Luton, believes the Tagged website should be shut down to prevent such things happening to other girls.
She said: “I realise a lot of people lie on it. There are girls on it that must be about 13, with their tops off, plastered in make-up. I don’t think it should be allowed.
“Behind that computer screen could be anyone. For two years I’ve been in and out of hospital with overdoses. I wanted to give up on life. I felt ashamed at what happened, I felt it was my fault.
“But I’ve got nothing to hide – it wasn’t my fault. Seeing him in court was a horrible feeling.
“He was smirking at me, and it wasn’t until they sentenced him that his face actually dropped. I couldn’t help but laugh.”
Hatton, now 28, of Milton Keynes, last week admitted sexually assaulting Rebecca and assaulting her by penetration, and was jailed for a total of four years at Luton Crown Court. His name will go on the sex offenders register indefinitely.