A 10-YEAR-OLD Melksham boy abused by charity worker Peter Rayworth is still suffering cruel nightmares about running into the convicted paedophile on his way to school.

The mother of the boy, who cannot be identified, said her daughter spotted Rayworth in Melksham town centre soon after the Christmas lights were turned on, bringing back the horrific memories of last summer.

Rayworth, 53, was given a three-year rehabilitation order and put on the Sex Offenders Register for five years after indecently assaulting the 10-year-old in the bathroom of his Gloucester Square flat last summer.

Now living in Swindon, he is still free to visit Melksham despite his young victim fearing to go swimming with his schoolmates in case he runs into him.

The boy's 31-year-old mother said she is horrified at the thought of her son running into his abuser again.

She said: "He is still very paranoid and has horrible nightmares. He has to hang lucky charms on his ceiling to try and stop them he even wants more for Christmas.

"I have seen Peter in Melksham I can't believe he is still allowed to visit the town. My son is frightened to go swimming at the Blue Pool because he thinks this man will be there to get him. It is not right. The law has let us down. He could stand right outside my son's school if he wants to."

"It is a year since it happened but we have seen him in Melksham recently my daughter came home crying."

Speaking of the "year of hell" since her son revealed he had been abused by Rayworth, the angry mother said without counselling her family would have fallen apart.

"My son has been having counselling since January that is no good for any 10-year-old child. Without help from the NSPCC I do not know where I would be.

"I just don't know what to tell him. How can I explain why this has happened to him?

"My anger gets me by I don't know what I would do to him if he came close to my child again but I would risk getting arrested to protect my son.

"He won't go out on his own and always has to be in a crowd. He doesn't want to go to school. There is no way justice has been done and we are still suffering. Some days he is walking around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He is not even thinking about Christmas."

The memories are also brought flooding back with the ongoing trial of Roy Whiting, the man accused of murdering eight-year-old schoolgirl Sarah Payne, whose body was found partially buried on land near her grandparents home in West Sussex.

The Melksham mother said: "With the Sarah Payne trial all I can think of is that could have been my child. I am just thankful we still have my son.

"He asked me about the trial as whenever he sees a picture of a child on TV he knows it is something bad.

"He is getting better and tries so hard to get on with his day-to-day life, but it shouldn't be like that."