Monster who raped step-granddaughter and forced abortion dies in prison

A paedophile who raped and tortured a child for years has died in prison. Raymond Hodges was jailed for 25 years in 2017 after being convicted of 24 offences against his step-granddaughter including performing a horrific coat-hanger abortion on her.

A prisons ombudsman report says Hodges, 78, died on February 24 at HMP Usk in Monmouthshire, a Category C prison that holds vulnerable inmates, most of whom are sex offenders. An inquest concluded Hodges died of natural causes after a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

In 2017 a jury found Hodges guilty of 20 offences including rape and using an instrument to procure abortion. He also pleaded guilty to four child sex offences. Judge Philip Harris-Jenkins imposed a 25-year jail term for the "extremely depraved sexual abuse" and two years later Hodges' step-granddaughter Charlotte Wade bravely waived her right to anonymity and spoke out on the abuse.

Hodges was Charlotte's stepdad’s father and, although he lived in Southend-on-Sea in Essex, he would travel 200 miles once a month to her home in Barry. The predator would babysit her when her stepdad went out and her mum was at work. The abuse started when she was five years old.

When Charlotte was six Hodges moved to Barry and the following year he raped her for the first time. At times the rapes occurred on a weekly basis. At the age of 12 Charlotte became pregnant and Hodges performed an excruciating abortion on the terrified child using a coat-hanger while his friend held her down. When she reached her teenage years the attacks became less frequent and when she was 14 he stopped coming round.

As a young adult Charlotte decided to report the crimes. Speaking in 2019 the then-22-year-old said: “Even after Granddad left I never felt safe. I suffered terrible flashbacks and self-harmed. And I tried to end my life several times. I realised that Granddad needed to be punished for what he’d done to me. So in November 2016 I reported him to the police.

"Speaking out has helped me move forward with my life and I want to urge others to do the same... I’m slowly piecing my life back together. And it helps to know that he’s rotting behind bars and that my evidence helped to put him there."

At the Cardiff Crown Court sentencing Judge Philip Harris-Jenkins said Hodges had “shown no remorse whatsoever”, adding: “There was a long history of beatings, scaldings, and burns done in order to subject her to your control and there was further evidence of sexual pleasure you took from domineering this poor child.”

Following his death the NHS commissioned an independent clinical reviewer to review Hodges’ clinical care at HMP Usk. The report concluded the clinical care he received was "equivalent to what he could have expected to receive in the community" although there was one recommendation "not directly linked to Mr Hodges’ cause of death which the head of healthcare will wish to address". For the latest crime news sign up to our newsletter here.

For confidential support the Samaritans can be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123.