A SEXUAL abuse victim has told a court of the guilt she feels for not going to the police 40 years ago.

York Crown Court heard that 20 years after Bryan Hudson indecently assaulted the victim when she was just seven he sexually abused other girls, one as young as two.

Only after she read a Press report of how Hudson had been convicted at a trial of abusing the other girls did the first girl, now a woman, find the courage to tell the police what he had done to her, said Julian Jones, prosecuting.

“I feel so much shame and guilt,” she said in a victim personal statement. “If only I had been strong before, it might not have happened to them.

“Not only do I feel guilt about what he did to me, but also for what happened to them.”

Today Hudson, now 63, is serving 16 years in jail for all his sexual crimes against the girls, including four years for abusing the first girl.

The judge told Hudson: “For 40 years she has lived with the nightmares, anger, misplaced feeling of guilt and the depression, all of which I am satisfied she has suffered as a result of what you did to her that night.

“You say you bitterly regret it. If you had bitterly regretted it you would have gone to the police yourself and admitted what you had done,” said the judge

Mr Jones said Hudson confessed to abusing the seven-year-old girl to her father shortly after he indecently assaulted her in the mid 1970s. Both her parents believed the seven-year-old.

“They were concerned about the prospect of putting her through any further form of trauma,” he said, and so decided not to tell police.

Hudson, formerly of Carr Lane, Acomb, admitted two indecent assaults against the seven-year-old. He was convicted by a jury in May 2018 of four indecent assaults and one charge of gross indecency against the other girls for which he was jailed for 12 years.

He is also on the sex offenders’ register and subject to a sexual harm prevention order, both for life.

Hudson, who represented himself, said: “I would just like to express deep sorrow and shame and apologise to (the seven year old). I take total responsibility for the harm I have caused her.”

The first girl was in court to see Hudson receive the four-year sentence.

“I would not be what I am if Bryan Hudson hadn’t done what he did. Now I have to get to know the real me,” she said in her statement.