A GRANDMOTHER says she can finally get on with her life after the man who sexually assaulted her 43 years ago was brought to justice.

In what is believed to be the longest time from offence to conviction in British legal history, John Staddon was jailed last week for attacking Kathleen Shone.

Inner London Crown Court heard how former police sergeant Staddon sexually assaulted the Downham resident in January 1962 when she lived in Elephant and Castle.

Staddon, who at the time was Mrs Shone's brother-in-law, attacked her when he visited to collect some laundry.

As the mother-of-four showed him the door he grabbed her from behind and put his hand over her mouth.

He pulled up her nightdress and she could feel his erect penis before managing to break free and barricading herself in a bedroom.

Before leaving Staddon, now aged 76, banged on the door and begged her not to tell anybody.

She told her then husband what had happened but he said the police would not believe the allegation because Staddon was "one of their own".

In 1974, Mrs Shone left her husband and children, feeling the attack 12 years before had destroyed her marriage.

In 1990, after moving to Rangefield Road, Downham, the grandmother-of-five was confronted by her daughter Pauline Owen, 49, over why she left.

Mrs Owen then alleged she and her cousin Rita Osborne had also been interfered with by Staddon, when they were 19 and 13 respectively.

For the sake of Mrs Owen's father Michael Shone, whose sister was married to Staddon, the women decided to keep it secret.

But when Mr Shone, who had Parkinson's disease, died in April they contacted Southwark police saying they had been attacked by Staddon, who was now living in Slough, Berkshire.

Three months later, officers arrested Staddon and he was charged with four counts of indecent assault which he pleaded not guilty to.

On October 6, a jury found Staddon guilty of the indecent assault on 68-year-old Mrs Shone but could not reach a verdict on the other three charges.

It then emerged Staddon was convicted of aggravated assault on an eight-year-old girl in Australia in 1969. He was fined $50AUS and bound over for a year.

Sentencing Staddon to 15 months in jail on November 16, Judge Lindsay Burn said: "I'm satisfied Mrs Shone's offence is as serious (now) as it was in 1962 and requires an immediate custodial sentence."

Speaking outside court Mrs Shone, who has waived her right to anonymity as the victim of a sex offence, said: "When I saw him in the dock I felt very angry.

"I never got my anger out before. I can get it out of my system now. It is something I have had to hold in all my life.

"I can still remember him hammering on that door while I was holding the pram against it.

"It left marks on my hands. I can now wipe them off.

"I hate him for what he has done. How it made me leave home. It makes me sick his family have lived a normal life and mine hasn't."

She added: "When the jury found him guilty I felt elated. I couldn't believe it. We didn't think he would get sent to jail.

"He was looking for a sympathy vote with having to look after his wife as her full-time carer. We were quite pleased with the sentence.

"I regret I didn't do anything at the time as it would have helped my daughter.

"But I was not in the position to do it. Back then in 1962, everything was swept under the carpet and where would I have gone with my children?

"My plans now are to get back a family unit I once had.

"His sentencing is the biggest Christmas present I could ever have."