A brave teenager has spoken out about the year-long sexual abuse she endured at the hands of a paedophile.

Laura Taylor, (16), took the unusual step of waiving her legal right to anonymity so that she could tell her story in the Manchester Evening News and encourage other victims to seek help.

Earlier this month Laura's stepdad, Lee Cooper, was jailed for 16 months. He had sexually abused her from the age of 10 but it took Laura nearly five years to find the courage to tell her family what had happened.

And in a bid to give the case as much exposure as possible Laura decided to waive her anonymity to speak to reporter Nicola Dowling, also allowing herself to be pictured in the paper.

She told Nicola: "I was frightened to tell anyone about it, but I eventually told my auntie what had happened.

"This has completely changed my life, I have no confidence. It has also affected my relationships; for a long time I was not comfortable with my own dad because of what my stepdad had done to me."

Nicola said that although she knew of cases when victims had waived their right to anonymity, it was not a regular occurrence.

She said: "It's never easy to write a story of such an emotive nature, but it needs to be told. And if the people at the heart of it want to tell their story then who am I to shirk including those details."