Brave victim faces "sick and depraved" lorry driver jailed for 17 years for raping young girls

A former lorry driver has been jailed for 17 years for raping and abusing young girls - with one of his brave victims facing him in court.
Reginald Wood, 82, was described as "sick and depraved" as a court heard he sexually assaulted three different girls from a young age and raped two of them.
Wood stood emotionless in the dock as his horrific crimes were recounted to him as one woman spoke of the devastating impact his abuse had had on her.
Fighting back tears, she told a court: “I will never forget what he has done to me. It has not only affected my life, but my children’s life. I don’t allow them to do normal things other children do.
“I suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). That would not be there if I had not been abused as a child. I have flashbacks. I will never forgive him.
“He is sick and depraved.”



A statement read to the court from another victim heard she too suffered from PTSD and obsessive compulsive disorder, and sees a counsellor to try and deal with the horrendous abuse she experienced, Gazette Live reports.
Teesside Magistrates' Court - sitting as a crown court to allow wheelchair-bound Wood access - was told the victim “struggled with day-to-day life”.
“I do not think the feelings of what he did to me will ever go away,” the court was told.
“They are like shadows that are always there.”
The repeated assaults spanned two decades and were committed in Redcar and other locations in Essex, with some taking place in the cab of his lorry.
Mitigating, Paul Cleasby said Wood had pleaded guilty to 23 different charges - including five rape charges, and numerous indecent and sexual assault counts - on the second day of a crown court trial in October.
That was after it was established in a psychiatric assessment with a doctor that the 82-year-old, who suffers from a number of medical conditions, was fit to plead.
Mr Cleasby said: “He understands he’s facing a significant sentence, and it may very well be that he spends the remainder of his days in prison.”
Judge Tony Briggs said: “It is perfectly clear that over a significant period of you were involved in serious abuse, and it’s perfectly plain there was a good deal of grooming.”
He sent Wood, of Redcar, to prison for a total of 17 years - with an extended 12 months on licence if he is ever released.