THE mother of the girl raped by David Adams today hailed the seven-year jail sentence as ‘a brilliant result’.

She applauded the verdict and told the Echo of her hope that her daughter would now be able to get on with her life.

Speaking at the end of the four-day trial that saw her daughter recall the evening in February last year when she was raped in a Bovington play park, she said: “It’s been horrific – she’s gone through hell. I feel relieved that it’s over and she is as well. I rang her to tell her the result and she burst into tears with relief.

“I hope she has a good chance of putting it behind her and getting on with life. And she knows he won’t be lurking around anywhere.

“It’s a brilliant result – I’m really pleased. It will make life easier. She’s got a good family – we’re supporting her.”

She said her daughter had been changed by the event and was continuing to receive counselling.

She added: “She’s not the same girl. She shuts herself in her bedroom.”

The mother, who watched from the public gallery as the evidence unfolded, said she had wanted to help her through the ordeal in court.

She said: “As her mother I just wanted to hold her hand. But you can’t do anything for them. You can’t make it stop, can’t put a plaster on and make it better.

“I’m so proud of her, the way she got through it all.”

She praised DC Denise Robertson who had helped the family during the past year. She said: “She’s been amazing, really supportive. I really want to thank her for everything she’s done.”

She said the pressure on the family had been made worse by the fact that Bovington was a close-knit community where so many people knew each other or were related. She said: “You think you can trust people, but you can’t. Parents have to let their children go out. Youngsters go to that play park, they meet up there and play football.

“I never want to go there again.”

Captain Malcolm Shakesby, MBE is county councillor for Egdon Heath, which includes Bovington.

He said rape was not expected to happen in Bovington but called the case a 'sign of the times'. He said: “The guy has been found guilty but the fact is you keep hearing about these incidents and it’s not just in Bovington. It’s all around the country. It’s something in society as people don’t understand what’s right or wrong anymore or have any morals."

Captain Shakesby said he was concerned about crimes happening in Bovington.

He added: “It seems to be something that’s happening more and more around the country. Something has broken down in the moral code and it certainly did not happen when I was younger."

Jailed for seven years

PLAY park rapist David Adams was jailed for seven years for the attack on the teenage girl.

A jury at Dorchester Crown Court decided he followed a 14-year-old girl into a play park in Bovington and pushed her back against a metal climbing frame before raping her in February last year.

They had heard how David Michael Charles Adams, 24, of Magnolia Close, Weymouth, ignored the girl's pleas when she said ‘stop, don’t do this to me’ 20 to 30 times and that she was unable to push him off.

The jury watched a recorded interview in which the schoolgirl told police Adams, also known as Ernie, had kissed her cheek and tried to hug her on a walk with friends in the afternoon.

She said it was dark in the park when she went to meet a friend between 8pm and 8.30pm.

When she got there her friend was not there and she looked around to find Adams had followed her and confronted her with an ‘angry face’, the jury heard.

“I said ‘what are you doing’ but he didn’t reply and that’s when he pinned me up,” she said.

“I just kept saying stop, stop, stop.”

She tried to push him away but he was standing on her feet and her arms were restricted by metal rails to each side of her, the jury heard.

She said afterwards she ran to an alleyway to wipe away her tears and had been afraid to tell anyone.

Police were told after she had an argument with a friend and her sister found out.

Prosecuting, David Bartlett said Adams had been living at what he described as an ‘open house’ in Bovington that had become a meeting place in the area.

Mr Bartlett said Adams had instructed his counsel to allege the girl had been lying and had made her account up.

He reacted to the claims by saying she had no reason to lie, and said: “What purpose would be served by doing so?”

Adams, formerly of Duncan Crescent, Bovington, denied rape, even knowing the girl or being in Bovington that day.

Mark Ruffell, defending, said claiming he didn’t know her or being in Bovington that day had been ‘pretty stupid lies’. Adams did not give any evidence in his defence.

Mr Ruffell said the jury had to decide who to believe and that it came down to choosing one person’s word against another’s as there was no eyewitnesses or CCTV. Sentencing Adams, Judge Nigel Seed told him he must sign on to the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.