'No-one helped me when monster stole my childhood’

Shelley Miller says she suffered 40 years of 'absolute hell'

A woman who was abused as a child by a convicted paedophile who lived in her family home says she was failed by social services who should have protected her.

Shelley Miller, 53, who lives near Dover, has waived her right to anonymity following the conviction of her abuser, Roger Tester.

Tester, 79, who was the partner of Shelley’s mother, was already a convicted sex offender when the abuse towards her began.

Kent County Council (KCC) said it was investigating.

Tester pleaded guilty in the 1970s to molesting a four-year-old child, around a year before he started a relationship with Mrs Miller's mother.

The BBC has seen documents from social services about Mrs Miller from when she was a child.

Roger Tester was jailed for 22 years for the abuse towards Shelley Miller

They reveal a family member of Shelley's raised concerns to social services when she was 12 over her contact with Tester and that they suspected she might have been on drugs after having seen him.

The records also confirm she ran to a children’s home in Deal run by KCC when she was 13 and was taken into care.

If you are affected by any of the issues in this article you can find details of organisations that can help via the BBC Action line.

Statements from a social worker state there were "rumours going round" that Tester was having a "sexual relationship" with her.

The documents show social services were told he already had a previous child sex abuse conviction.

They also said a family member of Tester approached council officers with concerns that he had relationships with "lots of girls and children and ought to be stopped".

Shelley disclosed to a social worker nearly a year after entering the home that Tester had been abusing her throughout her childhood.

Not enough evidence

Social services asked Tester about his previous conviction, but he denied it.

Mrs Miller says the abuse stopped when she went into the children's home, but she was still able to see him before she disclosed the abuse.

Police questioned Tester over Shelley's allegations when she was 15 in 1986, but he denied them.

At the time police said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute.

Ms Miller wants other victims of historical sexual abuse to come forward

Mrs Miller said she felt her allegations weren’t thoroughly investigated at the time.

“Social services could have saved me and they could have protected me," she said.

She also said staff at her children’s home "could have helped fix me and set me on the right path".

She added: “Now that he’s been convicted I feel it’s worse. It’s made it more real that actually these adults should’ve looked after me.

"I could’ve started the healing process."

Mrs Miller says the abuse towards her got so bad, she wished her abuser killed her.

She says Tester gave her heroin and alcohol to make her more compliant.

“Growing up, I didn’t know it was wrong. I thought he cared. But he didn’t care, he was a monster,” she added.

'Keep speaking'

In her second attempt to get justice - more than thirty years later - Shelley attended an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in 2019 where she disclosed her experience.

Kent Police was informed and Tester was charged.

In November 2023, he was given a 22-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape, 12 counts of gross indecency with a child and five counts of indecent assault, all against Mrs Miller when she was a child.

She fears others may have been abused by Tester.

Mrs Miller now wants to raise awareness of non-recent sexual abuse to help encourage more victims to come forward.

She said: "Keep speaking until somebody hears you."

Gabrielle Shaw says attitudes towards childhood abuse has evolved

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: "It's fair to say that the societal attitudes towards childhood abuse was not anything like it has evolved into today.

"It was almost a culture of disbelief to start with."

A Kent County Council spokesperson said the council would "undertake an investigation, and discuss and report back directly to the complainant".

Kent Police thanked Mrs Miller for her "bravery and perseverance" in coming forward and said that the capacity to investigate these kinds of crimes has "strengthened considerably".