August 2014

‘I looked up and he was outside smiling at me’: Teenager reveals horror at discovering paedophile who abused her at 13 moved in over the road after leaving jail

A teenager who was abused by a neighbour has told of the moment she discovered he had moved in over the road from her again.

Demi, 18, who has chosen to waive her right to anonymity, was abused by family friend John Breckon, 52, for several months when she was just 13 and babysitting his daughter after school.

Breckon, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting three counts of sexual activity with a child, was jailed after the teenager told Hull Crown Court how he groomed her, showering her with gifts, before lunging at her when she was barely into her teens.

He was sent to prison but upon his release, the paedophile moved into the house in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, left to him by his late mother – opposite the home of his traumatised victim.

Demi said: ‘He was freed from prison in 2012 and banned from coming near me for a year, but the day the ban ended, when I was home alone, I looked up and he was there.

‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: he was outside his house, looking straight at me and smiling.

‘I was devastated. That man had served his prison sentence but had then got his old life back and was free to sneer at me from over the road.

‘Yet my life was still ruined.’

The teenager says she and her mother, Angela, 39, asked local police and social services for help, yet were told there was nothing they could do.

As a result, Demi has had to move house to a new property miles from her childhood home.  But she said that despite moving away from her abuser, her life has been ruined by what he did to her.

She said: ‘I met John because my mum was friends with his mum, who lived over the road from us in Bridlington.

‘John was older and married to a nurse called Karen, and when I found out she was pregnant I was over the moon – I love babies, and I couldn’t wait to help them.

‘Five years ago they had a little girl, and I was soon babysitting for them after school, at weekends, and even before school sometimes.  They offered me money for it but I refused, because it felt wrong to take money for something I so enjoyed doing.’

Demi said that while Breckon and his wife had a house a couple of streets away, they were doing up his elderly mother’s house opposite her family home, so they split their time between the two.

She said: ‘I met John and Karen not long after my parents had separated, and while I still saw my dad, John was much older and felt like a father figure to me.

Picture of John Breckon convicted paedophile putting up CCTV on his house and being protected by police

‘I would often look after his daughter while they worked on his mum’s house, and then I started staying the night at their house when Karen, who’s a nurse, was on an 8pm-8am shift.’

Because she refused money for the childcare she did, Demi was not surprised when Breckon began buying her gifts. 

Demi said: ‘At first he would buy me the occasional thing – GHD hair straighteners, maybe a piece of jewellery – and then it got more and more, to the point where he was taking out £300 from the bank.  I didn’t really think anything of it.’

But then one day he asked her if she wanted to come for a run, and as they rested on grass having run out of the town, he lent over to kiss her.

The teenager said: ‘I was just sitting on the grass when he lent over to try to kiss me, but he saw a passer-by with a dog so he looked the other direction and nothing happened.

‘On our way back, I asked him what he was going to do, and he said “I would have tried to kiss you”.

‘I was just 13 at the time and certainly wasn’t attracted to him – all I was interested in was children, not going out or boys. 

‘I couldn’t get my head around what had happened – it didn’t really sink in.’

The abuse began from there, with Breckon, a former bacon factory worker, preying on the girl while his wife was working nightshift.

Demi, who had had a troubled childhood before she met Breckon, didn’t dare report it until it occurred to her he might be a threat to her younger sister.

She told a teacher, who called police, and after around six months of abuse, he was arrested and charged with child sex crimes.

She said:’After he was freed from prison he was told to keep away from the streets near my house and my school.  But the very day the ban ended, I saw him over the road.’

Distraught, the teenager called her mother home from work, but said they were powerless in front of the paedophile who merely sneered at them.

She said Breckon now continues to live as he did before, dividing his time between his old house, two streets away, and the house his late mother left him over the road from Demi’s family in the East Yorkshire coastal town. 

He is believed to be still with his wife, who stood by him, and their daughter, who is now five.

But while the convicted paedophile has picked up his old life, his victim is still suffering.

She said: ‘I’ve had to move away and I have such severe anxiety and depression that I’m on medication for both and I can barely leave the house.

‘I want to go to college and train to become a social worker, but my problems mean that that is a dream at the moment.

‘I can’t be out of the house because the minute someone stands near me, I get panicky.  My life is ruined.’

Demi married her partner earlier this year. She is virtually housebound too because Demi panics if she leaves her alone in the house.

Demi said: ‘I think there should be a lifetime ban stopping paedophiles living near their victims.  He’s ruined my life and I’ve had to move away because of him, while he can just get back on with his.’

Breckon’s wife Karen, 49, said: ‘He is entitled to live where he wants.’