FIVE decades after being raped by her brother a great grandmother is calling for justice to be done.

Pat Hedges was just eight when she says her brother Ronald Bennett sexually attacked her at the then family home in Capstone Road, Downham.

The abuse, which went on for three years, came to an end because she started to fight back.

But after 20 years of psychiatric help, the 67-year-old says she was still unable to come to terms with what happened and decided to try and get Mr Bennett to confess.

Last summer she confronted the 72-year-old and managed to tape him confessing to raping her once when she was about eight years old.

She contacted the police and in July he was arrested in Wiltshire and bailed to return to Lewisham police station.

In November he received a caution for indecent assault meaning the matter was closed with no court action.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told News Shopper it decided not to take the case through the courts because it felt there was not enough evidence to bring about a conviction.

Now Mrs Hedges has sent an electronic petition to the Prime Minister with backing from abuse support group, Phoenix Survivors. She is challenging the CPS decision, saying it had enough evidence to prosecute Mr Bennett under the 1908 Incest Act.

This would have meant court action and a maximum sentence of three years jail.

The mother-of-five, of Eltham Hill, Eltham, said: "It's every child's birthright to have a peaceful childhood. Apart from murder there is no more barbaric act than child abuse. It wrecks lives.

"If I can help close loopholes in the law then I have done something right for all those victims of my era.

"It will make sense of why I was born."

As well as the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of her brother, Mrs Hedges says her father regularly abused her as well.

It was only for the sake of her mother she kept the abuse secret.

Mrs Hedges, who used to run a restoration company with her husband Kenneth, said: "My terror was horrendous."

She ran away from home at 15 but her mental suffering still continues to this day.

She added: "I feel hate and bitterness towards my brother. I still feel devalued and not worthy of life.

"I want proper justice for what he has done to me."

If you want to sign Pat Hedges' petition go to phoenixsurvivors.com or call 01689 885717.