TWO weeks ago sick trucker Tony Spiller, 57, was put behind bars for 10 years after a nine-day trial found him guilty of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl, raping her when she was 11 and having sex with her when she was under 13.

His wife Pauline, a 50-year-old bookkeeper from Herne Bay High Street, vowed to stand by him, saying: "I don't believe for a second he's guilty."

Now the previously unnamed girl - Pauline's own 22-year-old daughter Laura Spiller, herself a mum-of-two - has bravely waived her anonymity to tell what really happened at the hands of her twisted stepfather...

LAURA'S STORY:

LIKE any new mum Laura Spiller feels the instinctive need to protect her children.

She takes Reece, two, and Saidie, one, to the park and for trips to the seaside, and worries at the tiniest cough or graze on their knee.

But Laura, 22, is determined their childhood will not be lost – like hers.

For she suffered horrendous abuse from the age of five, coming home from school day after day to be raped by her twisted stepdad.

Even after the physical abuse stopped when she was 15, lorry driver Tony Spiller held a mental control over Laura which threatened to ruin her life.

She said: "I was five and can remember being in a bath with Tony and him telling me I could touch him if I wanted to. I can visualise it as if it was yesterday.

"It's hard to look back and think about it because at five years old what hope have you got?"

As time passed, sick Spiller started to manipulate his stepdaughter, taking her to work with him for 12-hour shifts on the road.

She said: "I can remember being in his lorry and jumping over to the driver's side. He would look up my skirt and touch me and tell me what we were doing wasn't wrong.

"It was then he really started to control me mentally and the abuse got worse.

"When I'd fall asleep on the sofa, he'd carry me up to my bed and kiss and touch me.

"He'd say he was preparing me for when I was older and had my own boyfriend.

"He said it was what dads and daughters did, but I shouldn't tell anyone because they wouldn't believe me.

"He was my dad and I trusted him. I didn't know any different.

"If he told me the sky was pink, I would have believed him.

"He had this mental hold over me and manipulated me to believe what we were doing was normal. It was almost like we had our own secret life.

"Sometimes when my mum was at work he'd put a porn film on the telly and start making dinner. It seems strange now but to me that was normal."

When Laura turned 11, the last of her brothers - she has three brothers and one sister - left home, leaving her alone with Tony and her mum.

She said: "That's when he started raping me. I can't remember the first time because it happened so often.

"I'd walk home from school and my mum would be at work. If Tony could get home before her then something would happen.

"I can remember being in my school uniform. It was always just a simple nod of the head, or he'd say 'Are you ready?', and I knew what it meant.

"I'd tell him it hurt and sometimes I would cry but he just carried on.

"It happened so often. It was only ever a minute thing, maybe not even that.

"He didn't use protection either. I used to worry about getting pregnant but he said he was a man so he could control it.

"Whatever he told me to do I'd do because I was worried I'd get grounded or he'd stop my pocket money.

"I wasn't scared of him but I'd dread going home from school because I knew what would happen.

"It almost became like a chore; like being asked to do the vacuuming or tidy my room."

Spiller continued with his sick fantasy for the next four years, but things changed when the family moved to Honeysuckle Way in Broomfield.

Laura said: "It took me quite awhile to realise what Tony was doing was wrong. I'd been at an all-girls school before and we never really spoke about things like that. But then I started at Herne Bay High and began to understand.

"It was a mixture of all different things. Going to a mixed school and talking with boys and them showing an interest in me made realise I didn't want the abuse happening to me again.

"My mum set up her own business so she spent more time at home which made it harder for Tony.

"He kept pressuring me but I'd say I was going out or mum was due back from work. Luckily he believed me and it never happened again.

"Even though I understood I had been abused, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't think anyone would believe me or take it seriously."

When she was 16, Laura escaped the family home and moved in with an older friend.

She said: "Tony would always phone telling her not to let me see any boys or get drunk. My friend said he seemed possessive and later asked if he had ever abused me.

"At that time I wasn't ready to say anything and said no and she took my word for it.

"I later found out my mum had asked her to ask me so she may have had her suspicions."

As Laura spent welcome time away from Tony, she met boyfriend Dwayne and started experimenting with drink and drugs.

She said: "It was like I was in a different world. Drugs seemed to make things better and blank everything out. It made me forget for awhile.

"It was a kind of escape to a better life. It was as if I was rebelling against Tony.

"He was so anti-drink and drugs and hated what I was doing.

"But even though I wasn't living at home, he still had this mental hold on me. I'd cry all the time because he wouldn't leave me alone."

Laura's life was finally turned around by news she was expecting her first child, Reece.

She said: "I stopped the drinking and drugs because I knew it wasn't right for my baby.

"When I found out I was pregnant I told Tony I had my own family now and didn't need him."

Within a year of Reece's arrival, Laura gave birth to second child Saidie.

She said: "I'd look at her and think how could anyone hurt their little girl?

"I went to the doctors and was put on anti-depressants.

"I'd been suffering this mental abuse alone for so long and was struggling to cope.

"I think people had some idea of what I'd been through but I didn't have the courage to tell anyone, not even Dwayne."

Laura eventually broke down and told her harrowing story to her midwife.

She recalled: "I walked in and sat down and she asked me what the matter was. She told me I looked skinny and ill and she was right.

"I just burst into tears and everything came out. I told her about the abuse and how Tony had raped me.

"I was in such a state. It was such a weird feeling because before, everything was just going around my head, and now someone else knew."

Laura was encouraged to go to the police but put it off until she was on the phone to her mum who was looking after Reece and Saidie.

She explained: "I heard Tony in the background say: 'Make sure she wears girly clothes.' Saidie was no older than five weeks. That was the point I knew I had to protect my children from him and went to the police.

"I couldn't risk what I went through happening to Saidie. He never saw her again."

After the phone call she sent a text to her mum asking why she had let an abuser into their lives.

Laura said: "It wasn't until two months later that she asked me what I had meant by it. Tears started coming down my face and I told her everything.

"When she said she needed to get Tony's side of the story I just laughed.

I'd half expected it.

"She phoned me the next morning calling me a liar, saying I had consented.

"It hurt so much that she believed him over me."

Later that day, after 17 years of physical and mental abuse, Laura finally reported Tony to the police She said: "It turned out he had already been arrested because my mum had been to the station and told them. He was remanded in custody and three weeks later we just upped and moved to Buckinghamshire."

In February she had to face the ordeal of being cross-examined during a nine-day trial at Canterbury Crown Court.

She admitted: "I knew he was guilty but I was so scared the jury wouldn't believe me. I didn't want to relive every disgusting detail for nothing."

Spiller was convicted of raping Laura when she was 11, indecently assaulting her when she was nine, and having sex with her when she was under 13.

He was jailed for 10 years earlier this month.

Laura said: "It was such a relief to know the jury believed what I'd been through. I just wish I had gone to the police earlier because they were so supportive and listened to everything I had to say.

"Tony may have only been jailed for 10 years but he has a life sentence knowing what he put me through.

"He was an adult and knew what he was doing; he knew the consequences.

"I look back at pictures of me as a girl and wonder what made him think he was going to do to that to his little girl.

"There are times when I'm by myself and it's all quiet, and the kids are in bed and then it hits me. I try to think what did I do? Why did I deserve that?

"It bugs me that all the childhood memories I have lead back to him.

"Even driving down the motorway is hard because I see other lorries and the reason I know their names is because of him.

"I can't change what happened to me but I will do everything to protect my kids.

"If that means telling people about what I went through then I'm going to do it.

"My kids are going to grow up thinking they had a great childhood and their mum and dad were the best. They are going to be so proud.

"Tony ruined my childhood but he's not going to ruin the rest of my life."