Soldier abused by sick babysitter tracks her down on Facebook after 30 years

A soldier tells how he turned Facebook detective to nail a babysitter who abused him 30 years ago.

Shaun Knight, 35, shuddered with ­revulsion when, by chance, he spotted his tormentor on the social media site.

For six years, from four to 10, he had suffered at the hands of Georgina Woodburn.

She was 11 when she first ­assaulted him and 17 when the abuse finally ceased.

Woodburn forced Shaun into performing sex acts which have haunted him ever since.

The Army veteran knew that finding her on Facebook, in November 2017, was his chance to snare her – and, he prays, to finally put the hell behind him.

Shaun, who fought in the Iraq war, made contact with Woodburn and, slowly, extracted a confession that would land her in court.

He has now waived his right to anonymity to raise awareness of sexual abuse.

Recalling the moment he spotted 42-year-old Woodburn on Facebook, he tells the Sunday People: “When I saw her I was like ‘that’s her, the Honey Monster’. That’s how I always remember her – like the TV Honey Monster with her short hair.

“It was a surreal feeling, you feel like your life has been drained out of you.”

Shaun made contact every couple of days at first.

Over 12 months he sent 50 messages or so before she finally came clean.

He goes on: “It took me about a year of talking to her on and off. She was giving excuses, saying she didn’t remember a lot. She was basically just palming me off.”

Dad-of-two Shaun, who is currently unable to work because of post-traumatic stress disorder, goes on to reveal some of the Facebook dialogue between him and his abuser.

Shaun asked her: “Can I ask you one question please?”

Woodburn replied: “What?”

Shaun: “How come you made me do sexual things to you? Don’t be scared please.”

Woodburn: “Don’t know that’s the real answer.”

Shaun: “OK that’s cool, just trying to understand.”

Woodburn: “I am very sorry to you, didn’t mean anything and I mean that 100 per cent.”

Shaun: “You should of never touched us and made us do sexual sick things.”

Woodburn then offered to pay him £100 a month for the rest of his life.

He refused it and told her: “The right thing is to go to the police station please and hand yourself in.”

Divorced Shaun, who lives in Newton Abbot, Devon, tells the People: “She was apologetic and she just kept reeling off everything I needed for evidence.

“I accumulated all of that evidence to hand into the police.”

Unemployed Woodburn, who is ­separated from her husband, was charged with three counts of gross ­indecency with a boy aged under 14 and indecent assault against a male aged under 14.

The horrific assaults ­happened between 1988 and 1994 – shortly before Shaun’s family left the Isle of Wight.

He never saw her again until last month, the day she appeared at Newport crown court, Isle of Wight.

She pleaded guilty, got a 12-month community order and put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Shaun was stunned that Woodburn was not jailed and is pushing for a tougher sentence.

He says: “I’m going to keep pushing. We have appealed against the sentence. When I heard she wasn’t going to prison, I felt sick. I felt like the system has failed me.

“She abused me for six years until she was 17 years old.

“How has she got this sentence? It feels like justice was not completely done. If it was a man who had done this to children, I think they would have been sent to prison.

“With a community order, she can just sit at home doing what she ­wishes, when she wishes.

“That is not a punishment. There are other criminals who have had done a lot less than her who have been jailed.”

Shaun remains certain, however, that he did the right thing in exposing Woodburn’s crimes.

He adds: “I have no regrets about what I did. I hope it could stop other children getting abused.”

Woodburn was a babysitter for many families on an estate in Newport, Isle of Wight.

She molested Shaun when his mum Debbie was out.

“It started by playing with the teddy bears upstairs,” Shaun explains.

Woodburn would force him to take his clothes off, then make him perform sex acts on her.

The abuse ate away at Shaun, who replayed the sordid assaults in his mind over and over again.

At school, whenever boys made jokes about sex, he would flee to the toilets to throw up.

He adds: “I thought about her all the time, about how she had got away with it. I just hid everything.

“I didn’t want to come out and say I’d been sexually abused by my babysitter. I felt dirty, I felt what I’d done was wrong.

“I just want my life back from when I was three years old and start again but I can’t.

“I’m not the same person that I used to be. But I’m trying to keep strong.”