He was always on hand to drive her places, take her to the park and sneak her the odd 50 pence piece. He even helped her mum bathe her.
But actually, behind Sara's mum's back, he was sexually abusing her little girl.
Now 27, Sara, from Worcester, has bravely waived her anonymity as her uncle is jailed for 18 years:
After Dad left when I was a baby things were difficult for my mum.
There were a number of us children, but my uncle Brendan – my aunt’s husband – stepped in.
He’d do DIY, was kind and would help round the house.
At the time I viewed him as ‘Dad’. He’d buy me sweets, take me to the park and give me 50 pence pocket money a week.
He’d take me on weekly visits to my Nan and if Mum was busy he’d drive me places.
Mum had a problem with her hands, and they reacted badly to hot water, so from the age of three he stepped in and offered to help bathe me.
I’d sit in the tub and he would clean me. I was too young to remember anything specific but I do recall a sense of something amiss – like he was looking at me strangely.
I recall him saying to me – as he washed me: ‘I love you, I will always love you.’
I want to see him face-to-face and ask him why he did it. I’m a mum and the thought of anyone hurting my little boy makes me sick. I was just a child when I was abused but I won’t let it affect my entire life.
At seven I knew for certain that I was being abused.
He realised I knew it too – so took preventive action.
He’d whisper to me, ‘If you tell your Mum I will kill you. You will go into care.’
Then he’d add: ‘You are my favourite niece and I am your favourite uncle.’
My Mum had a computer in her room and I would go in there to play on it and do my schoolwork. He’d sneak up behind me, put his hands on my prepubescent chest and then shove a fiver in my hands before leaving.
At 12 he raped me for the first time.
I’d go to his house on a Saturday morning to give my Mum a bit of a break.
In the kitchen there was a red sofa. One day, when it was just us two in there, he started feeling me up. Then he pushed me on to the sofa and forced himself on me.
It was so, so painful. I bled and cried and I didn’t understand what was happening.
Afterwards he'd say things like: ‘This is what favourite uncles do to their favourite nieces.'
From then on it happened regularly. He would take me out for tea before taking me home to the red sofa and raping me. I begged Mum not to make me go back to his at the weekend but I didn’t tell her why.
She, understandably, thought I was just being a stroppy teenager. She didn’t realise weekend after weekend I was entering my own personal hell.
Of course, the abuse had a huge impact on me. I started bunking off at school. I’d smoke and drink and my schoolwork slipped.
At 13 I started feeling really itchy down below. It got worse and worse and for around two weeks I couldn’t sleep. I told my Mum and she took me to the GP who checked me out.
I was diagnosed with genital herpes. I know now that they are sexually transmitted but the doctor suggested I had got them though messing with myself. He suggested I’d had a cold sore and maybe it had been passed on to that area.
The years passed and the abuse continued until I was aged 17 and met a boy.
We started dating and I think the thought of me going out with someone put my uncle off because he stopped attacking me.
One day, when it was just us two in there, he started feeling me up. Then he pushed me onto the sofa and forced himself on me. It was so, so painful. I bled and cried and I didn’t understand what was happening.
Then, a year later, I was in a pub when – drunk – it all came out. For the first time ever I confessed what had happened to a friend. She believed me and it was an amazing feeling to know that I wasn’t thought of as a liar or a fraud.
But, still, I wasn’t ready to go to the police – and actually the impact of the abuse had severely affected my mental health.
I would self-harm nightly and was very depressed.
A turning point came in 2011 when I met my now fiancé Adrian Clark, 37, who is a train conductor, on the internet site Plenty of Fish.
We hit it off immediately and I told him about my tumultuous childhood.
He was so supportive and told me, if and when I felt ready to go to the police, he would be there for me.
In 2013 I fell pregnant. A few months into the pregnancy I became ill – it turned out the herpes had reccurred.
I had to be treated with anti-viral tablets and it was lucky my baby Corey, who is now four, was OK – it could have been really dangerous for him and even triggered a miscarriage or caused birth defects.
But I was so angry that Brendan had put Corey at risk and it made me realise that I had to seek justice.
So, with the help of specialist rape counsellors, I called West Mercia Police who referred me to officers from West Midlands Police – I’d lived in Walsall when the abuse occurred.
They interviewed me and believed everything I said.
Still, it took four years for the case to go to court.
At Wolverhampton Crown Court in May last year Brendan Grundy, 61, from Walsall, denied three counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child.
It meant I had to give evidence.
I stood behind a screen as I told a jury how, from the age of three, he had abused me, looking at me in a perverted way, giving me an STI and ruining my childhood.
He was found guilty and jailed for 18 years.
Now I want to see him face-to-face and ask him why he did it. I’m a mum and the thought of anyone hurting my little boy makes me sick. I was just a child when I was abused but I won’t let it affect my entire life. I’ve come through the other side.
We previously told how Shannon was sexually assaulted while at school – she spoke out as we reported of soaring incidents of abuse in the classroom.
We also told how a woman who was raped by her babysitter bravely waived her right to stay anonymous to encourage other survivors to come forward.
Meanwhile, Phillipa was drugged and gang-raped at a party at 14 – and some of her attackers are still free.
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