'I was a lovely person before the rape, but it changed me. I was pretty awful'

Then 18, the petite blonde teenager was attacked in an alleyway close to her home. Forced across fields to a secluded spot with her hands tied behind her back, she was raped and beaten.

In a state of shock, she admits she might have tried to go to work that evening had her injuries not been so severe, but she was struggling

to move and confided in her mother. A little over four hours later, she had undergone a forensic medical assessment and had given a statement to the police.

So began a two-year fight for justice, which would see Charlotte's nightmare intensify as Charles Megson, the man eventually found guilty of raping her, went on the run for a year before fleeing a second time the night beforeher trial.

"At first all I could do was sit and stare," she says. "I don't think I thought any further ahead than the next hour, the next day.

"I never once regretted going to the police and seeing it through to the end, but it was hard. There were lots of times when I just wanted it all to go away, times when I just wanted my old life back."

Conviction rates for rape are notoriously low. Of all reported rape cases in England and Wales, 70 per cent never make it as far as a court. Of those that do, just six per cent result in a successful conviction.

It was against this bleak set of statistics that Charlotte decided to pursue a case. When Megson was finally captured after a 12-month search, she allowed herself to breathe a small sigh of relief, but when he absconded while on bail just hours before a court appearance, it seemed her case might join the countless others that never reach a satisfactory resolution.

"I didn't think they'd catch him," she says, never referring to her attacker by name. "The police kept telling me they would, but I didn't believe them. The trial happened when he was still on the run and it meant that instead of giving evidence via video I could actually be in the court room.

"I'd been on a visit beforehand so I was familiar with how things worked and was introduced to the ushers, but there's nothing really

that can prepare you for standing there in front of a judge.

"The defence barrister gave me a bit of a hard time. I knew his job was to try to prove I wasn't telling the truth, but it's hard when you're stood up there on your own not to feel angry. I just tried to count to

10 and remember what my own solicitor had said, 'Just tell the truth'."

Charlotte did tell the truth. In his absence, Megson was found guilty in September last year and following his rearrest was finally forced to face the consequences of his violent actions.

Two months ago, he was jailed indefinitely and ordered to serve a minimum of six years in prison.

Charlotte wasn't in court to hear the judge describe him as a dangerous sadist, but a visit from one of the officers who had supported her since she first walked into the station almost two years earlier gave her the news she had waited so long to hear.

The jailing of Megson was a milestone, but the ordeal didn't end there. Like many rape victims, Charlotte was prone to mood swings.

Anger bubbled underneath and alcohol became a crutch to help her through the worst days. She admits now that her outbursts were often directed to those closest to her.

"I was a lovely person before it happened, but it changed me," she says.

"I didn't used to drink hardly at all, but it was just a way to make things feel better. I was pretty awful. I'd moved back with my mum after I was attacked, but she never knew who she was coming back to, whether it would be the nice Charlotte or the horrible one.

"I couldn't sleep and when I did I would have flashbacks and nightmares about what happened. I'm a lot better now. I don't think about him as much as I used to and I've almost stopped looking over my shoulder."

Charlotte remains in touch with the West Yorkshire Police officers who helped her through the trial and who later put her in touch with counsellors and in the bad times also spoke to her mother.

It doesn't happen in every case, some victims are keen to distance themselves from anything which reminds them of their attack. While it's wrong to talk of success stories, the eventual conviction of Megson and the two years the police spent working to ensure Charlotte felt able to move on from the attack is something of a blueprint for how all victims should expect to be treated.

"We have to be more realistic with victims," says Detective Sergeant Ian Lawrance. "Rape is very difficult to prove, but with enhanced victim care and a dedicated team of investigators working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, we hope to maximise the chances of more positive results at court and help victims move on with their lives."

However, a recent report showed the approach to cases of serious sexual assault by West Yorkshire Police has been flawed.

Commissioned after figures showed officers cleared up only around one in five offences last year, it emerged victims had often been seen by numerous different officers, many of whom had no special expertise; some sexual assaults had been wrongly classified as rape on the records, potentially skewing the crime rates and that the number of offenders charged, summoned, reprimanded or fined was well below that of other forces. At just below 22 per cent, it compared badly to similar sized forces like South Wales (45.6 per cent) and Lancashire (37 per cent).