Dad: 'I want to destroy child sex abuser's life'

Colin Adwent

AN angry father today said he wanted to “rip a child abuser's life to pieces” after pervert James Raistrick had sex with his 15-year-old daughter.

Raistrick, formerly of Victoria Street, Ipswich, was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to four sex offences.

The 26-year-old factory worker admitted three counts of sexual activity with a female under the age of 16 and a further charge of causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

The victim's father, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said when Raistrick befriended him and his daughter he did not realise it was a ruse to groom the girl for sex.

The father, who lives in Ipswich, said: “He met her through a friend of a friend. He was grooming her for some time. All of a sudden he became very friendly with me and I couldn't get rid of him.”

Raistrick had sex with the man's daughter during the school holidays in 2008 and a relationship continued.

The girl's father said: “He had made her think he loved her, that he was leaving his wife for her, and all the rest of it.”

The fallout from Raistrick's abuse has left its mark on his victim's behaviour.

Her father said: “My daughter went completely off the rails and was arguing with everybody. I would just like to rip his life to pieces.

“I would like to put him through the pain that he has put my family and his sister through. He has taken away my daughter's trust in men.”

The father also said his unemployment benefit had been stopped because he had failed to attend a job interview near to where Raistrick worked on the Farthing Road Industrial Estate.

He said police officers had advised him to keep away from Raistrick.

He claimed as he had not attended the interview he now has to exist on only hardship benefit.