A woman has opened up about how she was groomed as a school girl by a sportsman and someone who previously appeared in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks.
Rhiannan Egan, who is now 27, was targeted on Facebook Philip Hamer, 34.
At the time, she was just 14 years old, and he was 21.
Hamer, who had small roles in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks, then raped Rihannan when she was 17.
In 2023, along with other survivors, Rihannan reported him to the police and last month, he was sent to prison for 36 years.
‘Philip destroyed me. I was just a child when he groomed me’, Rihannan said in an emotional chat with the Daily Mail.
‘Reporting him felt like the biggest relief. And I’ve taken the power back now he’s been put behind bars. I want to use my voice to encourage others who are being abused not to suffer in silence like I did.
‘You can achieve justice and will be believed.’
Hamer messaged Rihannan on Facebook and told her she was ‘beautiful’. When he was 21, he played ice hockey for Great Britain and had credits in Fresh Meat, Corrie and Hollyoaks.
Rihannan added: ‘I thought it was cool that I had an older boyfriend who had a car. Because he also had a professional job as an estate agent, I trusted him. He would constantly tell me I was beautiful and flatter me. He made me feel special.’
She was taken to a woodland area by Hamer one evening, where they drank wine. Rihannan was then made to ‘perform sex acts on him’.
‘Thinking we were boyfriend and girlfriend, I just wanted to please him, so went along with it’, she said.
Rihannan would see Hamer over the next year, but kept it a secret from her mum, telling her that she’d be going out to see friends.
Hamer then took Rihannan back to his house, where he was living with his mum and stepdad.
‘He’d sneak me upstairs to his bedroom where we’d have rough sex. Many times he’d tie my feet and hands together tightly with cable ties, leaving red marks’, she explained.
‘I’d tell him it hurt but he didn’t care. It was awful.’
If she ever refused to do what he asked, Hamer would tell Rihannan, ‘I’m not dropping you home unless you do it’.
Rihannan stopped seeing Hamer when she was 15. Two years later, she received a message from him on Facebook once more, inviting her over.
‘Before I went, I told him “Don’t try anything on with me, I’m on my period” I was happy to catch up as friends, but nothing more. I made that clear’, she said, and ‘he agreed’.
When Hamer called Rihannan upstairs to his bedroom, she went.
‘As soon as I got to the bedroom, he grabbed me, threw me to the floor and straddled me. Pinning my wrists down. He yanked down my tights, and forced himself on me. As he raped me I told him “no”, over and over again. But he didn’t listen. His pupils were big and black, like the devil’s.’
Rihannan locked herself in the bathroom, but Hamer pretended to go downstairs, which allowed him to break into the bathroom and rape her again.
He then dropped her close to her home.
Months after the attack, Rihannan went to the doctors and confirmed she was raped.
Last month, Hamer was convicted of a total of 41 sexual offences against seven victims, including grooming and two counts of rape against Rihannan.
Judge Sarah Johnston said at Manchester Crown Court: ‘These were no relationships, you manipulated and groomed these young girls, inexperienced and impressionable as they were, in a way that was controlling and coercive.’
Rihannan believes there are ‘more survivors of his out there’ and hopes that someone reading her story will find the courage to report him as well.
