A police officer who cried at a rapist's sentencing said it showed she and her colleagues were not robots.
PC Lily Dyer led the investigation into Southend paedophile Aneese Uddin, who sexually abused his stepdaughter for years.
He was sentenced in September to ten years in prison.
His victim Morgan Carter, 18, this week waived her right to anonymity and spoke to the Echo, praising PC Dyer and urging others suffering similar abuse to call the police.
PC Dyer works for Essex Police’s South Child Abuse Investigation Team (CAIT).
“People ask me why I do it, because it’s not a nice thing to do or to think about, but I think it’s the most rewarding team you could be on,” she said.
“You build a rapport with your victim and that feeling when you do get justice for them – there’s no better feeling than that.”
She was initially drawn to the role because unlike other sorts of cases, “You get a job and do everything on it and see the end result. There is continuity for the victim.”
It was PC Dyer who questioned Uddin in January, after Morgan finally disclosed her abuse.
She described the paedophile’s demeanour as “abnormal”.
“It was very monotone,” she said. “He didn’t show much expression at all.”
Uddin answered “no comment” to all questions in interview, but produced two prepared statements insisting Morgan had consented to all her abuse and none of it had occurred before the age of 16.
By contrast, said PC Dyer: “Morgan showed a lot of emotion. She actually left her interview twice and threw up when she was talking about what had happened.
“Sometimes we have interviews where people won’t say anything at all, but Morgan went into detail when she was asked to.
“It was a very powerful interview. She looked at the camera at points and asked if he would be seeing it. She was trying to take back the control he had taken from her.”
In an exclusive interview with the Echo, Morgan described how Uddin – who had raised her since she was a baby – groomed her, got her hooked on drugs and then took advantage of her.
He even got her pregnant and told her he wanted to fly her to Bangladesh and marry her.
She heaped praise on PC Dyer, saying: “Lily smashed it. The whole investigation. She never stopped. She never gave up. She never lost contact.
“In court, we all cried together. Honestly, she was amazing. And if anyone was in my situation, I would say contact Lily and she would smash it, 100%.”
Asked about being moved to tears by the result in Uddin’s case, PC Dyer told the Echo: “I think it just shows that even though I work on this day in and day out, I’m not a robot. I’m still a human. In court, listening to things that are quite horrific, you still get emotional.
“People think we are just wired differently because we do it every day – but when you get in the courtroom and you hear everything and see your victims crying, it all kind of becomes real again.”
She continued: “Realistically, nothing is going to change what has happened to Morgan. But it has brought an element of closure.
“In this case, because of the evidence that was gathered and the enquiries that were completed, he has been convicted – and even though the sentence probably isn’t as long as I would have liked, or anyone would find reasonable, he has got a lifelong Sexual Harm Prevention Order and restraining order.
Asked what she would say to somebody suffering abuse and thinking of coming forward, PC Dyer said: “I’ve never been in that situation, so I could never imagine what that victim has gone through – but at the point that they come forward, they need to know that we are here to listen to them, support them and get justice for them.”
Anyone suffering abuse was urged to dial 101 and ask for the South CAIT.
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