Rape victim tells of ordeal

Nathalie fiddled nervously with her cup of coffee, and when she spoke it was scarcely more than a whisper. "My life has been hell," she said. "But it is going to be better now."

Fourteen years ago, when she was 21 and working in north London as an au pair, Nathalie was attacked as she walked home from the pub one night, dragged into a churchyard and raped.

The police who investigated were unable to find her attacker and she has lived in the shadow of her dreadful experience ever since.

She has suffered a breakdown, become paranoid and mistrustful, unable to form meaningful relationships with men. She still regularly attends therapy sessions.

But now some of her torment is about to come to an end. Thanks to improved DNA techniques the police have finally tracked down her attacker, and today Nick Keall, 41, a married father of three, will be sentenced at Wood Green Crown court for rape.

"Since what he did to me my life has been hell," said Nathalie - not her real name - who came over from her native Belgium to attend the trial. "Now it is over for me and it starts for him."

Keall's conviction is one of the first successes for Project Sapphire, a new Metropolitan Police unit dealing with so-called cold case reviews - which reopens unsolved cases of rape and serious sexual assault where there is still enough forensic evidence to offer hope of a conviction.

Nathalie's case was reopened in April 2000 because of a remark she made in a telephone conversation to the family she used to work for in London. What happened to the investigation, she asked? Did they ever catch him?

That message got passed on to the police. By chance there was enough forensic evidence to get a DNA profile of the rapist and put it on the police database. But there was no match: the case was no nearer being solved.

Then Keall, a minicab driver from Winchmore Hill, was arrested for assault on Christmas Day 2001. A DNA sample was taken and placed on the database. It matched that of Nathalie's attacker. Keall was arrested and charged with rape.

For Nathalie it was an immense relief. "I never thought he would be caught," she said. "I was so relieved. It is like a burden has been lifted from me."

There was, however, one more ordeal for her to endure - giving evidence in court. "It was very hard to have people who I have never seen in my life looking at me, and my life being exposed to people I did not know - a dirty part of my life. It was very difficult. I did not like it. But I guess I had to do it."

She finds it hard to talk about what happened on the night of 12 May 1989 - how, walking home after a night with friends in a pub in Southgate, she was grabbed from behind and dragged into the churchyard of St John the Evangelist.

Keall held her by the neck so fiercely she almost choked. "It was a wild attack," said Nathalie. There, in an alleyway, he raped her and shoved her to the ground in front of the church doors and punched her repeatedly, telling her to wait while he ran off.

Although Nathalie reported the rape to police that night, and although there was enough seminal fluid available to develop a DNA profile, the police investigation proved fruitless. An e-fit photo was circulated but, even though Keall lived near the scene of the rape, he was never traced.

Nathalie, meanwhile, had to face the challenge of trying to rebuild her life. "I kept thinking about it - of course you can never forget," said Nathalie, now 35 and working as a financial assistant.

"It has been hell because I feel very guilty, even though it is obvious I am the victim. But in my mind it was not clear. I would try to block it out. I did not say anything for a long time until I broke down. I got a bit paranoid and could not trust people.

"I would see the devil in people - someone could be nice but I would see the devil in them. Relationships were a catastrophe. There was nothing constructive. I just kept thinking nobody could love me."

Then came Keall's arrest. "When the police informed me he had been arrested I felt as if I'd turned a page in my life. I was able to start to really live. I felt well within myself, more confident."

At almost the same time she started a new relationship with a man who said he was in love with her. "I was so relieved," she said. "He is very sweet."

By coming forward to speak so publicly about such a difficult part of her life, Nathalie hopes she is helping other women who may find themselves in the same situation.

"I want women to be able to say, 'I am not alone, it happens to others. Maybe I should talk about it.' If you don't talk about it, it is going to rot in your mind and it is going to ruin your life."

She also hopes she is doing something in return for the British legal system and for the police who, she said, were "very supportive, helpful and very human".

For the police, securing a conviction after 14 years is a major boost for Project Sapphire. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Holmes said: "After trying to rebuild her life the victim had to go back through her ordeal all over again in front of a courtroom. I hope that today's sentence helps her to take a step forward in her life knowing that Keall is where he belongs, in prison.

"The last thing Nicholas Keall expected was to be facing a lengthy prison term 14 years after committing rape. Advances in DNA technology are paving the way for more forensic investigations and the Sapphire team is confident of securing more convictions."

Commander John Yates, in overall charge of the Sapphire team, said that out of the first 25 cases investigated five had thrown up DNA matches and another nine had yielded usable DNA profiles but no match yet.

He added: "We don't want to promise all victims that we are going to be able to solve their crime. But there are rapists out there who are going to get caught."