A woman went on with her marriage, even after being told that her husband had raped her best friend.
Royal Army Medical Corps officer Daniel Howard, 29, was jailed last week for seven years for the attack which happened in February last year, reported the Mirror.
He was accused of raping his then fiancee’s best friend, who was sleeping in the spare bedroom of his Darlington house.
The prosecutor told the jury the victim was fully clothed in bed when Howard entered the room and forced himself upon her.
During the attack, he warned the victim not to tell his fiancee and when it was over, asked: “Have you had a good time?”
After his arrest, Howard denied going into the guest room and having sex with the woman.
The soldier claimed that the alleged victim had his semen inside her because she had used one of his sex toys.
His new wife, April, had refused to believe he had carried out the assault and went ahead with her wedding just three weeks before his trial.
However, he was convicted after a four-day trial in which he was accused of inventing a “ludicrous, cold-blooded and insulting” defence.
The judge told Howard:”What you did was calculated. You relied on the victim keeping what you had done a secret burden to herself.”
“You sought to degrade and humiliate her by concocting a wholly false and unwarranted allegation.”
The victim, 26, has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
She has since changed jobs and lives with the fear of being left alone, having anxiety attacks and taking pills to sleep.
“I was meant to be the bridesmaid at her wedding. We were meant to have children at similar times and raise them together,” she said in her statement.
“He loves April and April loves him so why this happened I will never know.”
Source: www.tnp.sg
