IT HAS taken 19 long years. But a woman who was abused on a daily basis by her babysitter when she was a child has finally seen justice done. Former Nestlé worker John William Robinson, 57, was yesterday jailed for six years by a judge at York Crown Court for a string of indecent assaults against three different primary school girls in the 1990s. In a statement read out to court one victim, now a woman, said: “I finally feel some justice.”

There are many deeply troubling things about this case. Robinson’s crimes - he was earlier jailed in 2012 for seven charges of child abuse and indecent assault against four other girls - were appalling. But it is very clear that the girls in this latest case were failed by the police and others who should have been looking out for their interests.

The aunt of the victim whose statement was read out in court first went to the police in 1998. Robinson was arrested and interviewed, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided the evidence was not strong enough to prosecute. The victim went to the police again in 2012 when Robinson was jailed for offences against the four other girls. Unbelievably, the police told her to ‘move on with her life’. It was only when she persisted that the current prosecution began. The court heard how the victim’s life had been ruined by Robinson. She is unable to form long relationships with men and expects to be single all her life. She also blames herself for not stopping the defendant from abusing other girls. There are clear lessons to be learned here, for both the police and the CPS. The NSPCC has described Robinson’s campaign of abuse against children as ‘truly horrific’. But it could have been stopped almost 20 years ago, if only the police and the CPS had been a little more willing to listen. Shame on them.