A woman has told how the abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather has ruined her life.

Paedophile Alan Naylor, of Westland Avenue, Farnworth, was sentenced to three and a half years by a judge at Bolton Crown Court and his sentencing gave Jeanette Hind the courage to speak out publicly about her ordeal.

The former Bolton woman, who has waived her right to anonymity in order to tell her story, says she has suffered life-long torment following the abuse she suffered as a child.

But Jeanette hopes Naylor's imprisonment will help her rebuild her life and bring to an end the 36-year torment she has suffered as a result of the abuse.

She says he "took my whole life" and she has no regrets going to the police and revealing Naylor's abuse.

"The best thing I ever did was to tell someone what he did.

"It has freed me from my inner prison. It's freed my mind from all the torture.

"I want the world to know what he did," she said.

Jeanette, who lived in Breightmet at the time of the abuse - but now lives in Holywell, North Wales - hopes her decision to waive her anonymity will help other victims find the strength to report child abuse.

It took Jeanette until adulthood to finally reveal the full truth about her tainted childhood at the hands of Naylor, who had married her mother in 1971.

Naylor had been a coalman - delivering to the family home - and became close to Jeanette's mother who legally separated from her father in 1970.

Jeanette was at primary school when the abuse began and she became a very troubled child.

The now 45-year-old mum-of-one spent most of her young life in the care system and since then has suffered a miscarriage, been a victim of domestic violence and turned to prostitution.

But it was when she met her current husband, Paul, she felt safe enough to reveal what had happened to her as a child. Jeanette was living, then, in Nottingham, but plucked up the courage to go to the local police when she had moved to Holywell to be nearer to her siblings, and made a complaint against Naylor.

This meant he could finally be brought to justice.

Jeanette said she had been shocked by the leniency of the three-and-a half year sentence handed out to Naylor for 17 counts of sexually abusing her and another girl.

"I sat in Bolton Crown Court and heard the judge tell Naylor that he had defiled me and had taken away my childhood.

"I finally thought that someone understood and that I was going to get justice for what he did to me.

"But then he read out the sentence, which I thought was just for one lot, but when I realised it was for all 17 counts I went numb," she said.

Jeanette had hoped the case would go to trial and the whole sorry story would have be told but Naylor pleaded guilty to the charges.

"I wasn't happy. I wanted it to go to trial," she said.

She said her first sight of Naylor in the dock was extremely distressing. "When I first went into the court room and I saw him I thought I was going to be ok, but I was physically shaking.

"Unbeknown to me he had walked past us outside the court," she said.

In spite of the reaction she suffered in court Jeanette hopes, one day, to meet Naylor again. "I want to see him. He wanted to apologise to me in court but no amount of sorrys' can ever give me back what he took from me. He took my whole life.

"Even today I struggle with the way I am. Even today I am still learning to change my behaviours," she said.