This is Plymouth --A BRAVE young woman has told how she fought to keep her dignity after being followed by a stranger who then dragged her into an alley where he sexually assaulted her.
The woman, who is now 20, had been drinking in the city centre on the August bank holiday Sunday in 2011.
Her attacker, Grant Newcombe, followed her from Union Street in the early hours of the morning. He took her down a dark alley where he forced her to the ground, removed her underwear and told her he was going to rape her.
It was only when she bit him and began screaming that he fled.
Newcombe, 42, was convicted by a jury at Plymouth Crown Court earlier this month and given three years and three months in jail.
He was found not guilty of attempted rape.
The woman, who was only 18 at the time of the attack, has spoken exclusively to The Herald about her ordeal.
The incident left her scared to leave her house for months afterwards and she lost her job as a result.
She has lifetime anonymity because of what happened to her, but she has courageously chosen to tell her story.
She described how she was prepared to lose her life that night when fighting against him.
"I know I wasn't getting murdered, but it still felt like I was fighting for my life," she said.
"I was fighting for my dignity.
"I would have let him kill me. I was not losing my dignity to him.
"It was petrifying. I was fighting and screaming and you do feel helpless. It feels like there's nothing you can do."
Newcombe was seen on CCTV, played to the court, showing him loitering around Union Street after midnight on the evening of the attack. He waited before following the victim as she walked away from the nightclub at around 1am.
She admitted that she had walked away from her friends after having an argument with her ex-boyfriend.
Newcombe walked up alongside the girl and took her down Rendle Street in Stonehouse where he pushed her to the ground.
In her testimony to the court, she told how he tugged down her underwear, put his hand over her mouth and said he was going to rape her.
She said she then bit him and started screaming, causing him to run away.
The woman said hearing about her attacker's pre-meditated actions in court made it worse.
"I heard from court that he had followed and waited for me and that he had watched "rape porn" beforehand," she said.
"I wish I never knew that. It makes me sick.
"His prison sentence would never have been long enough. He never showed any emotion in court and he pleaded not guilty. He has no remorse. It will not live with him forever like it will with me."
Along with his prison sentence Newcombe, who formerly lived at Pentyre Terrace in Greenbank, was given a Sex Offenders Prevention Order for 10 years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.
After conviction, Judge Paul Darlow called it one of the most serious cases of its type.
It took the woman more than a year before she was willing to got to a pub for a night out.
"After it happened I was so scared. At first I blamed myself for what I was wearing," she confessed.
"I couldn't even go out afterwards. I didn't leave the house for about two months, except to go to work. I wouldn't get in a boy's car, not even with my step-dad. If I saw the same person twice in a day I would get nervy. I would come home and write down what they were wearing just in case.
"I'm so much better now. I'm still not keen on going to town though. I spend the whole time panicking about how I'm going to get home."
She admits that the fear the attack created in her has made sustaining new love interests difficult. And she has her own words of advice for other young women who are venturing out on the town.
"You shouldn't have to worry as a young girl but I would say to others not to go out alone. Stay with your girls and do not go off, even if it's to ring your boyfriend.
"I've realised there's no reason to walk off from your friends. If you're on your own, get a taxi home. Do not think it couldn't happen to you."
And she urged anyone who does find themselves the victim of sexual assault not to hesitate to contact the police.
She said: "It is hard for a girl to make that phone call but the support you receive from the police is brilliant. Calling them that night was the best thing I could have done. They were my angels that carried me along the way." Reported by This is 1 day ago.