My uncle sexually abused me on my grandma’s farm - 40 years later I’m finally free
Jayne Emsley, now 56, was just 12 when Martin Glynn Whittle, now 72, forced himself upon her in a home after getting her drunk on cider at a working men’s club.
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00:00I'm Jane Emsley and I live in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
00:05I was 12 years old on a break at my grandfather's farm in Huddersfield
00:11and my uncle turned up to take me and my sister out for the day,
00:15leaving his young son at home.
00:18I took us to a local club and plied us with alcohol and cigarettes
00:24and then took me to a house which I presume he rented or lived in on his own
00:30and he orally and vaginally raped me.
00:33Because it was done in the era that it was done,
00:36I didn't feel that I could tell my mum who was quite ill at the time.
00:41When I arrived, eventually came home from the farm,
00:45I came home to my parents had spit up,
00:50that's what they were doing while we were away,
00:52so I came home to a minefield really
00:55and I couldn't drop another bomb into what was already a really bad situation.
01:00So I didn't say anything.
01:03Then coming up to 15,
01:05my mum decided that she was going to move back to Huddersfield to be closer to her family.
01:11So I ran away from home and from then I lived in bedsits
01:17and slept on sofas for a while until I found my feet.
01:21I went through an awful couple of years
01:24and eventually got myself a good job working for a newspaper
01:30and saved up enough money to purchase my own home.
01:34I had to leave Harrogate, I couldn't afford to buy Harrogate,
01:37but I moved over to West Yorkshire but not the Huddersfield area.
01:41In 2021, I saw on social media
01:47that a martial arts couple who my son had a lot to do with
01:52were sentenced for some serious child sex offences
01:56and it shook the martial arts world.
02:01We then, I wondered whether he'd been involved in it,
02:06whether they'd got to him, whether they'd been near him,
02:09as he was very involved in them.
02:13It got too close to home for me
02:15so I literally went to the police station and told my story
02:18and I was believed from the moment I spoke to them.
02:22I was believed and that was a massive relief to me
02:27that somebody did believe me and I'd eventually told my story
02:30and that was 43 years, I think.
02:35The court process was really well supported by West Yorkshire Police.
02:43I was told everything that would happen.
02:46However, the offence that he was charged with was sexual assault
02:51because oral penetration wasn't considered rape back in 1981.
02:58The second charge of rape, which he did, we were left with a hung jury.
03:05The CPS did want to do a retrial
03:08but because of the stress that it put my family under,
03:13the fact that a retrial would be in two years' time, in 2026 we were told,
03:19and the fact that my uncle was now 72,
03:23I didn't want to go ahead with a retrial.
03:27He would walk free during that time,
03:29he wouldn't be sentenced for the first count
03:32and I felt so uncomfortable knowing that he was out on the streets,
03:35knowing that I'd told.
03:37He got what I would think a short sentence.
03:41The judge actually declared five and a half years.
03:44That was made up of three and a half years of time that he should serve,
03:48a year on licence and then an extra year which would also be on licence,
03:54which is something that the judge could grant for a serious offence.
03:57But I'm led to believe he's only going to be serving three and a half years.
04:03For me, that's not long enough.
04:05It's not reflective of what the sentence would be today,
04:10which is a life sentence.
04:12Had he been charged for both, it would have had two life sentences.
04:16Moving forward, I'm glad I did it
04:20and I wish that other people would do it.
04:25For me, the support of West Yorkshire Police has been phenomenal
04:30and it's totally changed what in 1981 I would never have gone to the police
04:36because I don't think they would have believed me,
04:39to now I would really encourage anybody to go to the police
04:42because they are trained now.
04:44They have special officers and ultimately they will listen to you
04:48and they will believe what you say.
04:50Tell somebody.
04:52If it's now, tell somebody.
04:55Don't stay quiet.
04:57Tell the teacher if you can't tell your parents.
04:59I nearly did and I didn't and I should have done.