It takes an especially brave kind of woman to do what Amy Groves has done in the pages of The Argus today.

She has told her story openly and honestly for two reasons.

So that the man who committed terrible crimes against her and her sister will face the full force of public shame.

But more importantly so that other young girls who might be in the situation she was in will know they are not alone.

Under the law any victim of sexual abuse as Amy and her sister Emma were have their identity protected.

But Amy wanted to speak out. With the full support of Emma she wanted people to read her story and understand what her stepfather Mark Gearing had put them through from the age of just seven.

How he had robbed them of childhood innocence and how he managed to make the girls feel guilty about his own actions.

It was a cunning and cruel campaign by a paedophile who forced a “secret and dark” life on the girls. It has taken them most of their young lives to see Gearing face justice but it has now caught up with him and he is beginning a 16 year prison sentence.

Anyone reading Amy’s devastating account of her abuse cannot fail to be moved by her bravery.

If just one young child has the same bravery she and her sister showed when they finally told of their torment and is able to do the same it will have been a terrible story worth the telling. Meanwhile everyone wishes Amy and Emma well as they put their terrible past behind them.