'I was raped by my grandfather': Woman, 18, reveals how she was abused from the age of FIVE.

A teenage woman has told how she is finally able to rebuild her life after being raped at the hands of her own grandfather - who forced her to examine him intimately with a torch.

The pensioner was described as being like 'a child in a sweet shop' as he repeatedly assaulted his granddaughter when she was staying at his home.

Alen Burrows, 64, who was jailed for 17 years over the abuse, would force Charlotte, who did not want to use her real name, to use a torch to examine him under the covers.

Charlotte (not her real name) was just five when her grandfather raped her. Alen Burrows (pictured with Charlotte as a child) started the abuse under the guise of tickling and has now been jailed for 17 years

It was this perversion which came back to haunt him when Charlotte testified in court last year.

The 18-year-old from Southport, Merseyside, said: 'When I was young, I thought it was normal. I thought it happened with every grandpa.

'He would tell me this was what he did to me was normal. It makes me sick.

'For five years it went on and I was just too scared to say anything. I was so scared my granny and parents wouldn’t believe me.'

The abuse started when, aged five, Charlotte would regularly stay at her grandparents’ house.

She said: 'I had dance lessons on Saturdays so I stayed over at granny and grandpa’s house the night before because they lived much closer to the studio than we did.

'I was really close with them both but granny worked nights as a carer. So me and grandpa would sit and watch television together.

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'It wasn’t until we were taught about sex in school, I realised what was going on was wrong.'