Sponsored by
Model tells of horror at hands of rapist
Cheryl Maddison
RAPE victim Cheryl Maddison has told how she feared her attacker would follow her back to the North East to strike again.
The 25-year-old was brutally assaulted just six days after she had left Murton for a new life in the holiday resort of Magaluf.
Moroccan waiter Mohamed Fadel El Anssari raped her and left her for dead before fleeing her apartment in May 2008. The 31-year-old was jailed for 23 years by a Spanish court earlier this month.
But Cheryl has now revealed how she feared Fadel would track her down to her County Durham home during his five years on the run.
She told a national newspaper: “I lived in fear. My home town had featured in news reports on the attack on the internet and I was convinced he would come to Britain to find me.
“For a while, I couldn’t even be in the bath on my own. I took all the door handles off so you had to use a knife to turn them, and I had escape routes planned wherever I was.”
Model Cheryl said she didn’t work for six months and despite extensive counselling, continued to have panic attacks.
Three years after the attack, she became a holiday rep on the Greek island of Zante for two consecutive summer seasons. She was in Zante last year when she learned Fadel had been arrested.
DNA found on a cigarette he had thrown in the street matched that found on bedsheets in Cheryl’s apartment. She flew back to Majorca last month with boyfriend Kaine McDonald, 21, to see Fadel jailed.
She said: “I was scared, but determined. Most of all I didn’t want that man to hear me cry — he’d taken so much from me that I didn’t want to give him that.
“It was hard, but I didn’t shed a tear on the witness stand. Not one.”
Twitter: @craigjourno
Email to a friend
Print this page- Boss Di Canio wants six new men for Sunderland
- Bus crashes into Sunderland JobCentre
- Pool pervert used shoe mirror to spy on woman changing in Sunderland Aquatic Centre
- Survival assured, Sunderland boss can plan future
- ‘You can’t live a lie and spend your life feeling sad’ – transgender modelling competition finalist tells all
- DOBSON MARKS START OF HEALTH C
- Di Canio: Sunderland players will get a shorter summer break if they don’t perform well at Tottenham
- Last post is 6.30pm (but get here by 5.30pm)
- TV chef Martin Blunos takes over the kitchen at Seaham Hall
- Sunderland museums and arts centres lose out as donations head to London
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sunderland
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
