Abused woman recalls horrific rape as a teen by mom's 'monster' friend who pimped her out as 'payment' to his friends
A mother has come out to detail the horrific abuse she underwent at the hands of a man who groomed her as a teen and pimped her out to his friends as a "payment" for odd jobs. Lisa Poncia waived her anonymity to talk to The Sun about how she suffered for four years at the hands of convicted sex offender Anthony Gorringe after running into him by chance when she was just 15.
Now 25 years old, Poncia said she ran into Gorringe at a supermarket in 2009 while out shopping with her mother, and that they all soon became good friends. She said things began taking a turn for the worse when he offered to tutor her once a week, and that the sexual abuse started in December 2009, when he touched her inappropriately in a park.
He then began abusing her a couple of times a week, even buying her a phone so they could message each other in private. In January 2010, he raped her at his home, during which the "pain was unbearable", she recalled. Poncia also revealed that Gorringe would go on to rape her whenever they were alone together, telling The Sun, "I felt so alone and would cry in my room for hours. He never threatened me but I wouldn't dare tell anyone."
She said the 58-year-old soon started demanding that she sleep with his friends as well and because she was too terrified of the abuse, she was made to have sex with 52-year-old Barry Gaynor as a "payment" for a car he fixed.
When she was 17, she had to move in with him as she had no other choice, briefly receiving respite after allegations were made against him by someone else. But despite the arrest, the abuse worsened once he returned, and Gorringe reportedly started taking naked pictures of her.
Those images were ultimately discovered by cops who seized his laptop, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to seven counts of taking indecent photographs of a child and one count of possession of indecent photographs of a child.
But further charges were brought against him after Poncia finally decided to go public with her story in 2015 following her marriage. "Becoming a mother made me realize the impact of Anthony's abuse," she said. "I knew he couldn't get away with what he'd done to me."
In September 2018, Gorringe was found guilty of three counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault by penetration, 10 counts of causing sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing child prostitution in connection to his abuse of Poncia and another young girl.
The 58-year-old was also found guilty of two counts of rape, and four counts of causing sexual activity without consent against a teenage boy between 2004 and 2007. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison and was also ordered to spend a further eight years on extended license. He will have to serve at least 16 years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.
"Anthony made me feel like I only needed him," Poncia said. "He was a great manipulator but I never saw that at the time. I'm thankful he's been jailed and the world can see him as the monster he truly is."