She Finally Gets Revenge For What Her Uncle Did To Her 25 Years Ago

#1 Only six

Pictured here at six, when the abuse started. Karen had no idea of what was going on, she just knew that she didn't like it.

'I just didn't know what was happening to me. I didn't like it and when I realised, I tried to make it stop but it's so hard when he's part of your family. 'I started to dread going to bed. Mum probably thought I just wanted to stay up later when I tried to put up a fight.

#2 A family picture

A family photo taken in 1984, five years before the abuse started. Karen is pictured as a baby on her mother's lap, left, and her uncle, Iain Langdale, is top right, pulling the ears of another uncle.

#3 Symptoms

He started to rape her when she was nine and this abuse continued for years as she was too scared to tell anyone what was happening.

She said: 'I couldn't sleep, I started wetting the bed. I stopped eating for a while too. My dad found unopened packed lunches stuffed behind the wardrobe'.

#4 A decade of silence

Karen didn't tell anyone for a decade, but she spoke out when her uncle had children of his own. She feared he would abuse them too. He was jailed for 18 years in 2011 and Miss Billingsley has now decided to share her story.

#5 Parents getting a divorce

Her symptoms ocurred because of what was happening with her uncle, but since her parents were getting a divorce at the time, everyone thought that was the reason. 'He would abuse me about once a week. I tried to avoid him and started lashing out at him too. I just looked like the troubled teen.'

#6 How it all started

She explained how the abuse started: 'My mum's got a big family and my uncle would come round and babysit, go with us on days out. It wasn't strange that he was around the flat a lot.' At the age of 15, Miss Billingsley moved in with a friend to escape but the ordeal continued to haunt her and she took an overdose of tablets which left her in a coma for six days. She said: 'The memories were still with me. After years of abuse, I felt worthless. Every time I closed my eyes, I'd see Ian on top me sweating and panting.'

#7 Engaged in Bali

'I managed to cut him off but it was years before I was able to go to police,' she said.

She met her fiance Charlie Colbert, 37, in 2008, and with his support she finally had the courage to face what had happened to her.

'I'd struggled with relationships in the past because of the trauma, but I really liked Charlie,' she said.

'I decided to be honest from the start and told him I was abused. He talked to me about it, he was so brilliant I knew then I could trust him with anything.' Mr Colbert popped the question in 2012 and they are now planning their wedding and hope to start a family.

'He stole my childhood but he won't take my future,' she said of Langdale.

#8 Survivors of Child Abuse facebook page

She learned from another uncle that visited them that Iain had children of his own. 'I was disgusted, he could do this to his own kids and if I didn't speak up, it might happen to someone else,' she said. So she finally called her mother to tell her her what her brother had done and then called the police. She said: 'Mum was so upset and blamed herself. But it was his fault and noone elses.'

In June 2011, Langdale, then 52, appeared at Bristol Crown Court where he was convicted of three counts of rape and 11 sexual assaults. He was jailed for 18 years.

Karen said: 'It was hard but after he was put behind bars, I was able to start moving on with my life.'

Miss Billingsley works as a technical adviser for an engineering service and helps other victims of sexual abuse via a Facebook support group she's set up called Survivors of Child Abuse. She advises them to act sooner than she did to bring a sex attacker to justice.

She said: I've spoken to so many other victims and helped them to report their attacker. I tell them it's not about your family or your partner or anyone else. It's about you and what you've been through.'