'We are all empowered today and he is in jail' - Brave victims of rapist actor Alexander Westwood celebrate sordid tormentor's comeuppance

However, this was no normal set of friends marking a birthday or anniversary in Wolverhampton city centre. Behind the hugs, tears of joy and smiles was a dark connection which will bond them for life. 

These impressive young women were only brought together due to being victims of their shared tormenter and attacker - sexual predator and convicted rapist Alexander Westwood. 

Just an hour earlier, the scene had been very different. 

Three of his victims, two of whom were children when sexually abused or raped, and a mother of an abused boy, all left the witness box in tears after telling Wolverhampton Crown Court of the impact Westwood's sickening crimes had on them. 

Wearing smart jackets, with their hair tied back, they nervously sat together, ignoring their attacker in the dock. Giving each other encouragement, they held hands and told one another they had the strength to reveal their most intimate fears and pain to the court. 

Each brave woman took turns to walk to the witness box. All had written down what they were going to say, but the unique circumstances facing them, having to tell friends, family, lawyers, the judge, journalists, returning jurors and their attacker their innermost fears would be an emotional moment underpinned by stress and vulnerability. 

Their anxiety heading to the witness stand was heightened as the last time they stood at the witness stand they had been subjected to a brutal cross-examination by Westwood's lawyer James Bloomer KC. 

Thanks to Westwood never admitting guilt he forced his victims to stand before the world and recount their biggest lifelong traumas, all whilst he smirked in the dock, still trying to exert his ever-diminishing control over those he sexually abused.

Accused of everything from lying to being mentally ill, and either being forgetful or malicious concerning the tiniest details of their testimony, they had left crying the first time.

By not being able to tell the jury exactly what they had replayed in their minds a million times they left court in a flood of tears, some believing they had let themselves and fellow victims down. 

This time would be different.

One revealed: "He wrecked my life," another told the world she could not even shower without thinking he had made her "dirty", whilst another cried uncontrollably as she revealed years of abuse at Westwood's hands as a child. 

Each sentence finished was a victory.

Every single one of them said what they had come to say. And as they walked back to their seat they were greeted with hugs, recognition and support and their tears gradually stopped.

Due to complexities of the English court system a sentencing is never simple. Especially as Judge Neil Chawla KC had to sentence 26 different crimes against five victims stretching back 14 years which Westwood was found guilty of last December.