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I was sexually abused at 4 by family friend… I’m haunted by the face he pulled but he was jailed for just 2 years
POURING a pint behind the bar, Kaylee Thompson looked up as a punter entered the pub – and froze.
Standing before her was a face that had haunted her for years, the face of a man she had been desperately trying to forget.
This was the monster who had violently abused her when she was just four years old, destroyed her innocence – then jeeringly poked his tongue out at her.
“I knew instantly it was him,” says Kaylee, 35, who now works with survivors of rape.
“I’d had so many flashbacks throughout my childhood, and I hadn’t forgotten him.
“I felt the blood drain from my face. I turned away, refusing even to look at him, and ran out of the bar.”
Growing up in Bradford, Kaylee had a normal, happy childhood until an evening in 1994 changed her life forever.
“My older brother Sam, then six, and I were staying at my aunty’s house, being babysat by my cousin while Mum was out.
“I remember very little, except that I was wearing pyjamas with horses on them.
“When I woke, I was being held up at the side of the bed, and someone was sexually assaulting me.
“I recognised him as a boy called Thomas Brown, then 17, and a friend of my cousin.
“I was scared and confused, but he was hurting me and so I shouted out and pushed him away.
“He punched me in the face and I fell onto the bed.
“When I came round, he’d gone, and my face was stinging.”
Kaylee made her way downstairs to find her cousin, who was sleeping on the sofa.
She says: “I couldn’t wake my cousin, but then I heard a noise in the kitchen and Thomas Brown appeared.
“He stuck his tongue out at me before walking out of the house. It was an image which haunted me for years.
“Terrified of him, I ran back upstairs, and my brother woke up and settled me back in bed.”
The next morning, Kaylee had a black eye.
She says: “I told everyone Thomas Brown had hit me, but I couldn’t tell them about the abuse; I didn’t have the vocabulary at that age.
“I didn’t know what had happened to me.”
Kaylee’s mum reported Brown to the police but officers advised them there wasn’t enough evidence and the case was taken no further.
As the months passed, Kaylee was terrified of leaving her bedroom during the night and began wetting the bed.
She says: “I had flashbacks all through my childhood.”
But Kaylee kept her abuse a secret, desperately trying to move on with her life.
Aged 16, she got a job in a bar in 2006, and one evening in her attacker walked in.
“I knew, instantly, it was him and I ran away,” she says.
“We had mutual friends on Facebook and I realised he was friendly with people who had kids of their own.
“I knew I had to speak out, yet the longer it went on, the harder it became.”
I tried not to let it overshadow my life but the memories of the attack were always in my mind Kaylee Thompson
After that, Kaylee says that she began drinking heavily as a coping mechanism.
“I confided in my friends like any typical teenager, they were who I spoke to about my problems, they were always urging me to go to the police,” she says.
“I tried not to let it overshadow my life but the memories of the attack were always in my mind.”
Kaylee later met her husband, James, and the couple went on to have three young sons.
When she confided in him he was totally supportive and appreciated the fact that she needed to take her own time to report Brown.
Then, in 2021, as part of her role as a community development worker, Kaylee was invited to join an advisory group with Bradford Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Survivors Service.
She says: “Working there, and talking with other survivors, made me think I owed it to myself, and to all other women, to speak out.”
Kaylee went to the police in November 2021 and Brown, now, 47, appeared before Leeds Crown Court in April this year.
When she eventually confided in her mum she was devastated, heartbroken that Kaylee had carried the secret for so long.
How to report a sexual assault
- Contact a doctor or practice nurse at your GP surgery.
- Contact a voluntary organisation, such as Rape Crisis, Women’s Aid, Victim Support, The Survivors Trust or Male Survivors Partnership.
- Call the 24-hour freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247.
- Speak to the rape and sexual abuse support line run by Rape Crisis England and Wales – you can call the helpline on 0808 500 2222 or use the online chat (both are free and are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year).
She says: “The cross-examination was tough, the defence barrister repeatedly challenged my memory of events.
“But I knew I was telling the truth and I held onto that.”
He was found guilty of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14 and jailed for two years – the maximum he could receive under the lenient laws of the 1990s – and put on the sex offender register for 10 years.
Kaylee says: “The process was very stressful. I had no support prior to the court case.
“When I was interviewed, I was taken to the ‘Vulnerable Victim Suite’, which I objected to. I asked the police officer if they had a ‘Paedophile Suite’ also.
“I’m not a victim and I don’t like to be categorised like that.
“Just as I was aged four, I am still fighting, still standing up for myself, and I want to stand up for other survivors too.
I carried so much shame all those years but now the shame is all on him Kaylee Thompson
“I am pleased I have justice and that he’s been exposed for the animal he really is.
“I carried so much shame all those years but now the shame is all on him.
“The more I open up about it, the more it has left me.
“I would encourage any survivors to come forward, no matter how long it’s been.
“The process is not easy, however, it does help you heal and get closure.”
Kaylee continues to work with a survivor leaders group at Bradford Rape crisis centre.
