‘Sexual attack through pal left me feeling betrayed’

A lady who used to be sexually assaulted through a pal after an evening out has described the devastating have an effect on the assault had on her existence.

Bryony Piggin, 20, waived her proper to anonymity and instructed the BBC she felt “betrayed” through her former easiest pal.

She spoke out after Stefan Nikolic, 20, of Coast Road, Bacton, in Norfolk, used to be discovered responsible of attack through penetration.

On Friday, Recorder Simon Levene sentenced him to 2 years in jail, suspended for 24 months, and instructed him he had “misread” the location.

Describing her friendship with Nikolic prior to the assault, Ms Piggin stated: “We were inseparable.”

The pair were on an evening out with pals in Norwich when the attack took place in April 2023.

The courtroom heard that she had agreed Nikolic may keep at her house within the town, but if she aroused from sleep, he used to be assaulting her.

“It was incomprehensible that my best friend would do something like that to me,” she stated.

Ms Piggin, who’s now not able to paintings because of her psychological well being, stated the attack left her with a way of “confusion, betrayal and sadness”.

She stated she may now not imagine her former pal “abused” the consider she gave him.

The assault on 29 April 2023, has left Ms Piggin with anxiousness problems and resulted in her chucking up the sponge of her Open University route.

“I avoid leaving the house… Trauma makes it impossible to carry on.”

Nikolic denied attack through penetration, arguing he had consent, however a jury at Norwich Crown Court discovered him responsible on 31 March.

Giles Fleming, for the prosecution, stated that even two years on, Ms Piggin used to be nonetheless struggling.

Reading from her sufferer have an effect on observation, he stated the “consequences were devastating” and that she used to be struggling with publish anxious rigidity dysfunction (PTSD).

“He didn’t just violate my body, he took the person I was.

“Even now, two years on, I will nonetheless really feel his contact,” she said in her statement.

The court heard how Ms Piggin still scrubs herself “uncooked within the bathe” following the sexual assault.

Recorder Levene said the pair had a “heat, affectionate courting” before the incident.

“You totally misinterpret the location,” he told Nikolic, adding “I do take into accout your loss of adulthood.”

Nikolic used to be additionally passed a five-year restraining order.