Sarah Lavis

So it was probably about three, three 30 in the morning.

And I got up to go to the toilet and he was standing in my doorway.

Yeah.

Everyone's nightmare.

And of course, being so naive, I was just like, I think you've got the wrong house.

Like, you know, trying to think, oh, he's a bit drunk, like try and get him out because I could see the back door was wide open and try and, and that's when it turned really violent.

Yeah.

obviously he hadn't walked into the wrong home no had he been in there do you think or like while your friends and that were there or had he come i don't think so i don't think so so yeah i remember it was like obviously the rape was pretty violent and then um

It's a bit blurry sometimes because I got hit in the head, like I do.

I remember getting strangled and waking up, but then he left, but he came back.

And then when he seen I was still there and had come round, that's when he said, like, if you go to the police, if you tell anyone, I will come back and kill you.

So I'm not sure if he thought that I was gone and that's why he came back.

Yeah, obviously I was going to call the police straight away.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yep.

So I live on the border and he defended in Victoria and this crime was in New South Wales.

And because this was 20 years ago, we didn't have a national DNA registry.

So he wasn't picked up until they joined the registry six years later.

So he had been to prison for stalking, breaking in, leaving his DNA on women's beds.