Two men have been jailed following a woman's long-running "battle" for justice against her childhood abusers.

Timothy Edward Chambers, 51, of Loudon Square, Butetown, Cardiff, and Christopher Lawn, 29, of Penylan Road, Roath, Cardiff, sexually abused the woman when she was a child in Llandrindod Wells. She cannot be named for legal reasons.

The court heard that Chambers "abused his position of trust" as both a St John Ambulance leader and through his relationship with her family, and that Lawn was a teenager when he raped her when she was just nine.

The pair were sentenced after trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday, July 4. They were both given five years in prison.

Lawn was convicted of seven charges, including the rape of the girl, and Chambers was convicted of three charges of sexual activity with a child.

The woman, who was abused as a child and is now in her 20s, read her out her own victim statement to the court; and in front of the two men who abused her.

She said that she went through years of "torture"; "allowing myself to be abused by two people".

"I thought I was to blame and had nothing to live for," she said.

She now has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an anxiety disorder.

"I was battling to get my case heard," she said.

The woman said the abuse she experienced was "haunting and traumatic moments" of her childhood.

"A childhood I would not get back," she said.

The prosecutor, Nicola Powell, said that Chambers had a police caution for indecent assault, against a teenage girl, from 1996 which the judge had ruled the jury shouldn’t be told about before they had reached their verdicts.

The victim said in her statement that she felt "let down by the police".

"I read this today as a survivor, not a victim," she said.

"They took away so many years from me and they will never take any more. I will never forgive or forget what they did to me."

Claire Wilkes, defending for Lawn, asked that the age of the defendant, when the offences were committed, should be taken into consideration during sentencing with the maximum amount of reduction to his sentence.

The fact that he was a victim himself should also be taken into consideration.

The court was told despite the involvement of social services no action was initially taken and a police investigation was only opened in 2016.

However, Judge Richard Twomlow said: "None of this takes away from the fact that he was the abuser."

Jonathan Rees, defending Chambers, said that said that although he was a cadet leader, it was "not in that capacity" that the offences took place.

But Mr Twomlow said that it was through the St John Ambulance that Chambers knew the girl.

Mr Rees said that although he is 51-years-old his "health is that of an older man".

He listed conditions such a asthma, diabetes and depression, and said that he had a stroke in 2013.

His parents live in Llandrindod, the court heard, who he had a "close relationship" with.

Mr Rees told the court that Chambers' father is unwell and that there's a "real chance his father will pass away" while he is in prison.

Mr Twomlow said the woman "had a battle with the authorities to bring these matters to the courts."

He added: "These offences have had a very strong effect upon her."

He said that Lawn has Asperger's, which is "of course a real factor".

Speaking of Chambers, Mr Twomlow said: "You were looked up to and trusted."

The court heard that there were "grooming behaviours" and that there was a degree of "abuse of trust".

He sentenced both of them to five years in prison. The judge also made restraining orders, for Lawn and Chambers, to not have any contact with the victim in the case, indefinitely; unless a further order is made.