THE parents of a teenage rape victim have spoken of their family’s ordeal at the hands of Facebook bullies.

The Clitheroe family had a fireproof letterbox installed following a campaign of abuse after their 13-year-old daughter was raped by a 15-year-old boy last January near Clitheroe FC’s ground.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons after a judge refused an application to identify him, at first denied the offence which, the parents say, led to malicious gossip spreading through the community.

He later pleaded guilty.

And a Facebook group was created protesting the boy’s innocence, with the victim and her mum being verbally abused in the street and over the internet.

Yesterday, after the boy, now 16, was jailed for 31 months at Preston Crown Court, the parents have revealed the full extent of their harrowing ordeal.

The mum of the victim said: “This was not just kids. It was adults as well. My daughter is now serving a life sentence.

“We’ve been very restricted in going out. I would get surrounded by groups of youths out walking the dog. They called my daughter a liar.

"There’s no way a 13-year-old girl should have to put up with this sort of intimidation. Shame on them.

“Her school work has suffered and we’ve had to re-socialise her. But we hadn’t done anything wrong, so didn’t want to move.”

The parents removed her Facebook account, but not before making a copy of some of the worst abuse. It included former friends calling her ‘sick and twisted’, and telling her to move away from Clitheroe.

One 13-year-old girl, who abused the mum in the street, was identified to police and was force to meet face to face and apologise.

Another boy, aged 15, who told a youth worker he would burn the victim’s house down, was also dealt with.

That threat triggered a ‘vulnerability assessment’ by the fire service.

The parents praised Ribble Valley CID, but said they were 100per cent sure that they heard more than one male voice as they unwittingly listened to the end of their daughter’s rape ordeal after she answered her mobile phone.

They were frantically trying to locate their daughter after a friend had seen her drunk in the street.

The 13-year-old was discovered by a dog walker, naked from the waist down, and immediately told police she had been raped.

The defendant had a previous conviction for sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl, and was on bail for that offence at the time of the rape.