Man, 29, jailed for the rape of a woman in Ringwood

A 29-year-old man from Christchurch, Dorset has been jailed for three years and nine months for the rape of a woman in Ringwood.

Joshua Blachford, of Everest Road, pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on Tuesday 12 August.

The incident, for which he has now been imprisoned, took place at an address in the town between Saturday 17 February and Sunday 18 February.

In an emotive Victim Personal Statement read out to the court, the victim recounted how she will never be able to get back the person she once was.

In her statement, she said: “Before I was raped, I was confident. Outgoing. Full of energy and ambition. That version of me feels like a stranger now – someone who was stolen in the space of a single, horrific event.

“My relationship with my own body has changed. I used to be body positive. I liked the way I looked. Now I hide in baggy clothes, desperate not to be seen, not to be noticed, especially by men. Being looked at feels threatening. I no longer feel like a woman – I feel like a target.

“This rape has changed the way I see everything. The world. Myself. My future. And although I’m trying, healing isn’t about “getting back to normal” for me because normal no longer exists.”

She ended her statement by saying, “I’ve had to accept that the person I was will never return. And that’s a grief I carry on top of everything else.”

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