Last Updated: 6 days ago
Raymond Hodges (Image: South Wales Police)
📋 A former Essex man convicted of horrific crimes against a child has died at HMP Usk in Monmouthshire, Wales. Raymond Hodges, 78, passed away on February 24 from natural causes after suffering a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Hodges was serving a 25-year sentence, handed down in 2017 after being found guilty of 24 offences against his step-granddaughter Charlotte Wade, who bravely waived her anonymity to speak out about the abuse she endured.
“Even after Granddad left I never felt safe,” Charlotte said in 2019. “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.”
During sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Philip Harris-Jenkins noted that Hodges had “shown no remorse whatsoever”, stating: “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.”
A prisons ombudsman report confirmed that Hodges received appropriate medical care at HMP Usk, equivalent to what would have been provided in the community.
