A SURVIVOR of sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, watched as he was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday.

Leyna Tucker, who waived her right to anonymity, told Plymouth Crown Court that she had attempted suicide more than once after her ‘childhood was ended’ by Andrew Fulcher, 64, of Kingsbridge, after he indecently touched her on multiple occasions, starting while she was under 13-years-old.

Fulcher would engineer situations like rides on her mother’s moped or guitar lessons in her bedroom to touch her inappropriately over her clothes.

Leyna, now 46, read her victim impact statement to the court, telling of how she had been left with ‘trust issues’ and had descended into using cocaine and amphetamines and began drinking heavily at the age of 16.

She told of how she ‘never wanted to be by herself’, allowed herself to get into abusive relationships and bullied others at school following the abuse. She said it had taken 30 years to realise ‘it was not my fault – he is responsible’.

Leyna, who is now happily married to a ‘lovely man’, who ‘made me who I am today’, said the experience has left her never wanting children.

She described Fulcher as ‘evil’, ‘sadistic’, and a ‘games master’ where everything around him was a game and people were ‘pawns’. She was relieved that people ‘now know what he’s like’.

Leyna’s family, originally from Frome in Somerset, moved to Kingsbridge around 1979, where Fulcher, who has two children of his own, worked as a driving instructor with his company: RRR School of Motoring.

When he married her mother in 1981, Leyna said he ‘changed instantly’ and stopped working, preferring to live off benefits.

Leyna told her mother about the abuse when she was 16, but ‘didn’t go into details’. Her mother made Fulcher write a letter of apology to her, which has unfortunately been lost.

This didn’t help the situation and Leyna left home as soon as possible, taking an opportunity of a Youth Training Scheme and worked with horses in Switzerland, returning after 18months because she missed England.

Leyna, happy and relaxed after the sentence, said she felt like ‘a weight had been lifted’ and encouraged anyone who has been in a similar situation to come forward.

She finally told the police about the abuse in late 2013, after her mother Rose passed away, saying she ‘couldn’t have done this while she was alive’. Rose and Fulcher stayed together until she died.

Leyna said telling the police ‘made it worse for a while’ as she was made to relive that time in her life, but that since Fulcher was found guilty, she has been ‘chirpy’ and ‘happy’.

‘Name and shame’, she said. ‘I’ve been on antidepressants for years, but I’m not anymore. Justice has been served and I’ve got my life back’.

She explained that even after her mother died, Fulcher continued to make matters hard for her: ‘my mum’s ashes disappeared’, she said, ‘He said he’d scattered them on Bantham Beach because “the wind was in the right direction”. Within 12 weeks he was living with another woman.’

Mr Barry White, for Fulcher, said he had nursed his wife Rose through lung cancer and a brain tumour, telling the court there were ‘other sides to the man’, and he was at a low risk of re-offending. He suffered his own health problems including a ‘pre-cancerous condition’, meaning any sentence would ‘take up more of his life than a fitter or healthier man’.

His honour Judge Paul Darlow sentenced Fulcher, of Trebblepark, Kingsbridge, to four years in prison, the length Leyna said she ‘expected’.

He commended Leyna for her ‘bravery’ in coming forward and told Fulcher: ‘All the offences are in gross breach of trust.

‘The one place a child is entitles to feel safe is in their own home, with those who have parental responsibilities.

‘Mr White has asked me to show mercy, but you showed no mercy to your victims. You blamed them, said that they were motivated by spite – something the jury found not to be believable.’

He said had Fulcher committed the offences after the change in the law in 2003, the sentence would have been longer.

Fulcher, who gave a ‘thumbs up’ to the public gallery as he was taken from the dock, could be released after half his sentence has been served. But he will remain on the sex offenders register for life.