M25 rape victim speaks out

A victim of the M25 rapist Antoni Imiela today spoke for the first time about her ordeal to encourage other women to come forward and report sex assaults.

The 54-year-old was raped at knifepoint by Imiela while walking her dog on Wimbledon Common in August 2002, having been grabbed from behind and punched in the face when she tried to look at him.

Four hours after the rape, as Imiela met his wife and sister, Ann - not her real name - was being cared for by police and treated at the Haven in Camberwell, a specialist centre for victims. Speaking about the attack, she said: "As soon as it was over my first thought was to get in my car and go home I could have quite happily not said anything but I would have regretted it bitterly later.

"The police couldn't have been better. They put no pressure on you and I don't think I could have recovered as easily if I hadn't gone through that process."

Ann believes the worst times were the months before Imiela was caught and added: "Nothing could have been worse than knowing he was still out there. What happened was a dreadful thing on a public common, in broad daylight, visiting a place that I know very well and where I used to go everyday.

"One of the biggest difficulties is that at 52 I did not fit the profile of Imiela's other victims who were as young as 10. My daughter Claire who is 25 fits the profile better. I was much more concerned about Claire's safety."

Described in court as a "dangerous sexual predator" Imiela, 49, was jailed for life in March for seven rapes between November 2001 and October

2002. Ann testified against him because she wanted to look him in the eye when he did not have a knife: "When I saw him, it just totally took that terror away. I just thought he looked pathetic. There was a lot of physical disgust but he just became the rapist again, just a man.

"The best thing for me was that at one point he looked over and looked at me and he looked away first and that for me was worth waiting 50 years for. I finally could take back the control that he held over me until the trial."

She is now fighting to regain her lost independence. "I'm coping quite well but there's still not a day when I don't think about the attack or about him," she said. Ann agreed to speak to promote the opening today of a new rape Haven at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. It is the third Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in the capital, and means London will have SARC cover 24 hours a day.