A MAN has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to a history of sexual abuse against children.

Colin Wray, of Gorham Drive, St Albans, admitted to 14 sexual offences on children between 1978 and 1987.

Sentencing him on Friday, judge Stephen Warner said 60-year-old Wray – who is bed–ridden with osteoarthritis and had to be carried into St Albans Crown Court on a stretcher – had embarked on a “systematic, prolonged and repeated conduct of abuse”.

This week, victim Tracy Lawrence, from Hatfield, waived her right to anonymity to speak to the Welwyn Hatfield Times about her relief at Wray’s sentence, and also to encourage others who may have suffered similar abuse not to stay silent.

“I’m not going to carry this around anymore,” said Tracy, 37. “It’s a lot to carry, and now it feels like a weight has been lifted.”

For more on this story, see this week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times, out today (Wednesday).