'We were strangers until we helped bring a paedophile to justice'

"Do you mind me doing this?"

Those words, she said, were ingrained in her mind.

"I lost my innocence that day because a person in authority overstepped the mark and lost all my trust."

Lynne said Lloyd-Lavery had shown no remorse during the trial.

"He didn't think he was guilty at all. Didn't have the grace to give us that.

"He thought we were fantasists, that it was the Me Too movement that we'd all got together and planned this on Facebook. We didn't even know each other before."

Both women said the guilty verdict was "fantastic".

"We were all euphoric that day."

However, one thing that both women found difficult to deal with was hearing the character references that had been given to the court before the judge sentenced Lloyd-Lavery.

David Campbell, one of the founders of the Loyalist Communities Council and a former Ulster Unionist Party chair provided a reference to the court.

When asked by BBC News NI why he had done so, he said he provided "a brief, factual reference" on the basis of "my knowledge of him for over thirty years, and my fear that a custodial sentence could result in his death or a serious stroke".

Referencing Lloyd-Lavery's victims he said: "It was never my intention to add to their hurt."

When asked the same question by the Belfast Telegraph, Campbell told them he had wanted to ask the court whether there was a possibility of "a minimum sentence, rather than a maximum sentence. I mean given as the scale of the offences weren't dramatically huge".

Nicola and Lynne described Campbell's comments to the Belfast Telegraph as incredulous.

Lynne said: "I would have thought any abuse or assault towards a child is a huge matter."

Nicola questioned how Campbell could know what kind of impact it had had on them.

"He's not a young teenage girl who's been sexually assaulted, so how would he possibly be able to make a comment?"

When BBC News NI put those remarks to Campbell, he said he had not seen what was published by the Belfast Telegraph.

But he added that he absolutely rejected "any assertion that I would try and minimise any hurt or abuse inflicted on any child.

"The abuse, or attempted abuse, of any child is completely unacceptable and abhorrent."

Both Nicola and Lynne are appealing for anyone who has been a victim of any kind of abuse to come forward.

In reference to the previous acquittal, Lynne hopes that the man who brought that case has got some closure.

"He's the instigator of it all. He started it all and we finished it."

Nicola has no regrets about coming forward.

"Get that burden lifted off you, whether it's shame or anger. It's not your shame to carry. It's not your anger to carry."

If any of the issues raised in this article have affected you, details of help and support are available on the BBC Action Line.