Screen plot led to abuse investigation

The Eastenders plot prompted a police investigation

A sex attacker was convicted after an Eastenders storyline prompted a teenager to go to the police about her childhood ordeal.

The 19-year-old, who cannot be named, was so moved by character Kat Slater's revelations that she reported her attacker after a decade of silence.

Viewers of the BBC soap saw Kat reveal herself to be the mother of her screen sister Zoe following a harrowing rape ordeal when she was a teenager.

Newcastle Crown Court found Richard Bond, 61, guilty on Friday of two charges of indecency with a child, one of indecent assault and one of attempted rape dating back to 1991.

Gross indecency

Bond was remanded in custody by Judge Michael Cartlidge, who warned him a prison sentence was inevitable.

The case was adjourned for four weeks for reports to be prepared on what future risk he might pose to children.

After the majority verdicts, it emerged that Bond had an unrelated previous conviction for gross indecency following an incident in 1999 when he showed a seven-year-old girl pornographic magazines in his garage.

For that offence he was sentenced to 12 months probation and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for five years.

Bond, who lived in Penshaw, near Sunderland, in 1991, now lives in Abbey Street, Hull.

Attempted rape

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court was told a two-year campaign of abuse started when the girl was aged eight.

Bond initially exposing himself to the girl, but the abuse culminated in an attempt to rape her.

Anne Richardson, prosecuting, had told the jury the victim had been watching the TV programme last year when she broke down and told her boyfriend what had happened to her a decade earlier.

Bond, who had one charge dropped in mid-trial, maintained that none of the abuse had ever taken place and that he had been "totally shocked" when arrested by police.