London - A bridesmaid has told how she was raped by the fiance of her best friend - who did not believe her and went on to marry him weeks before his trial.
The attack by Army captain Daniel Howard, 29, caused further tragedy when the victim’s boyfriend killed himself, devastated that he had been unable to protect her.
Howard, an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, was jailed for seven years last week at Teesside Crown Court after a jury found him guilty.
He had denied rape, claiming that his accuser made up the night-time attack in a spare bedroom.
Bride-to-be April Broadgate, 26, was asleep next door when the attack happened in February last year in the flat the couple shared in Darlington.
She stood by Howard and married him three weeks before his trial in a lavish ceremony - not attended by the bridesmaid he raped. The woman, 26, said in her victim impact statement she was ‘upset’ by the collapse of their friendship.
‘April was my best friend from uni,’ she said. ‘I was meant to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. We were meant to have children at similar times and raise them together. Our whole friendship group has become divided when I most needed my close friends.
‘I can’t actually believe that she doesn’t believe me.
‘A person who I really cared for and who cared for me has been turned against me, as has her family who I always got on with.
‘I only said something in the first place to try to protect April - I couldn’t have stood in church on her wedding day knowing what had happened and that it would most probably happen again.’
The victim said she had taken a ‘huge step backwards’ in her life following the attack. Plans to buy her own house were ruined as she did not have the confidence to move out of her parents’ home.
‘I went travelling around Asia by myself before all this and now I am scared to live by myself in England where I have friends and family close by,’ she added.
‘I was applying for jobs in London to broaden my career but now I can’t think of anything worse. Being away from my safety net is terrifying. My life is still on hold. Even though I am making progress and I am determined to, I just feel damaged and broken.’
The rape also led to her boyfriend’s suicide. ‘He felt partly responsible for what had happened, he had turned his phone off that night so I couldn’t get hold of him. He never forgave himself for that,’ she said.
‘He always worried every time I went somewhere and wouldn’t sleep if I went out…He committed suicide a few months after we broke up. Even though there were multiple things contributing to this, it had quite an effect on him.’
The court heard she had been fully clothed in bed after a drinking session when Howard entered the room and forced himself on her.
In her evidence, the victim said Howard warned her during the attack: ‘Don’t tell April.’ The next morning, she called a rape crisis line and drove to hospital. She has been receiving counselling.
Commenting on the trial, she added: ‘It took a lot of strength to go to court and the first day was awful… When I gave evidence I felt… I was being accused of being a jealous fantasist and it hurt.’
Daily Mail