Rape victim reveals attack ordeal

By Jonathan Morris and Lynne French BBC South West

Anne Marie said she feared no-one would believe her

Anne Marie was a successful career woman in her 30s, preparing to marry her fiance, when she was repeatedly attacked in her own home by a knife-wielding rapist.

Anne Marie has waived her right to anonymity to bring attention to a campaign by Devon and Cornwall Police to try to reduce the number of sexual assaults.

In February 1995, she was living in a rented attic flat in Reading, Berkshire, where she worked.

"I'd only been in the house for a few weeks and hadn't got to know anybody there," she said.

On the night she was raped, Anne Marie's boss had given her a lift home because she did not have a car.

Always a cautious person, she said she locked her bedsit door once she was inside before getting on with some work.

Kitchen knife

"It was the night of the Brit Awards, so I had one eye on the television and the other eye on some advertising I was writing when there was a soft knock at the door," she said.

"I heard this voice - a male voice - saying 'it's me' and for some reason, I really believed it was my boss's voice.

"My first thought was that I'd left something in his car - perhaps a handbag or some advertising.

"So again, not really thinking about it, on automatic pilot I opened the door."

Her attacker, who was wearing a stocking mask over his face and carried a large serrated kitchen knife, forced his way into the apartment and knocked Anne Marie across the room.

I had this vision that I would not be believed, but that was not the case at all Anne Marie

Her initial thought was she was going to be robbed by someone who had watched her withdraw money from a cash machine opposite the house.

"It became obvious very quickly that wasn't why," she said.

During the course of the attack, Anne Marie was raped repeatedly, assaulted, cut with the knife and threatened with death.

"I remember him holding the knife up to my throat and telling me if I said anything I'd be dead," she explained.

Afterwards, Anne Marie persuaded her attacker to leave, by agreeing to meet him the following day.

Although she did not know it, her attacker turned out to be someone who lived in the same house with his girlfriend.

"He told me one of the reasons he'd picked on me was because I'd passed him a couple of days before on the stairs and spoken to his girlfriend and not acknowledged him at all."

'Absolute respect'

Fearing police would not believe she had been raped, she was initially determined not to report the attack.

"Up at the hospital, it was actually the nurse who was dressing my injuries who persuaded me to let her call the police and it was the best decision I've ever made," she said.

She said giving the statement was hard, but she was offered breaks and she wanted to get the evidence down as soon as possible.

She said: "Everything about it was very reassuring.

"The interviewer treated me with absolute respect which was so important to me.

"I had this vision that I would not be believed, but that was not the case at all."

A medical examination took place with a female doctor.

Faced attacker

She said: "It was not pleasant, but the doctors help you keep your dignity."

Several days of making statements followed before she returned to Exeter where she was living with her fiance, to whom she is now married, and spoke to her family.

"That was one of the hardest things," she said. "I felt like I would be spoiled in their eyes.

"I didn't go out alone for three months."

The court case came three months later.

"Some victims can have screens so they cannot see the defendant but I did not want one," Anne Marie said.

"It was part of dealing with what had happened to me."

Her attacker was later convicted and jailed for 11 years.

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