EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

A YOUNG woman whose life was shattered when she was brutally raped in her own home finally looked her attacker in the eye as he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The victim, now 22, who spent years traumatised by the attack, attended court with her mum and came face to face with evil Shaun Greenwood.

After the 2002 rape, which caused a sensation in Great Harwood, Greenwood, 41, of Lisbon Drive, Burnley, went on to rape other women in Nelson and Burnley before being trapped by DNA evidence.

The maniac struck just two days after the attractive girl's 18th birthday. He knocked on the door shortly after she arrived home from work, forced his way into the lounge, subjected her to a terrifying ordeal and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.Cradling her five-month-old son in her arms, the woman said this week: "I don't know if he recognised me because I have changed my hair colour and I look a lot different now but I looked him in the eye.

"I want him to serve his full sentence and I want him to suffer. He turned my life upside down and at the end of the day I'd be happy to see him dead."

Speaking exclusively to the Observer at her home in Great Harwood, she said: "I thought the court case would rake everything up again but having my son has been a blessing because I'm too busy to think about it all the time.

"Before they caught him I was looking everywhere and I was terrified of being on my own or out in the dark. I didn't know what he looked like and every man I saw made me feel jittery and sick.

"I gave up everything I enjoyed - my horseriding, aerobics and socialising - and I would sit in the house with the windows and curtains shut in the summer. I was paranoid, scared of every noise and depressed. I turned to eating to cheer myself up."

Following the trauma of the rape, the former blonde moved out of the family home, dropped out of college and split with her fiance of over a year-and-a-half.

She said: "I think the stress of the rape affected our relationship and put it under pressure. I depended on him 24 hours a day. I needed him just to go to the toilet and if he went to the pub for half-an-hour it would feel like five days. I was so paranoid and I would phone him all the time."

Despite being guaranteed anonymity for life, she said everyone in the town knew who she was.

She added: "When I managed to go back out socialising I worried if people thought I was lying. I'd often find myself standing in a pub right underneath a poster appealing for information about my attacker.

"I started going out in a jumper and jeans so I didn't attract attention because I would see people looking at me but after a while I gained more confidence and decided I should be able to wear what I wanted."

Now, four years later, the proud mum is planning to move away from the area with her new boyfriend and father of her son to begin a new life together.

She said: "The rape made me really wary. I am quite a good judge of character but I found myself being really cautious and doubting men's intentions. I'm sure I came across as abrupt but when I met my boyfriend I did my own extra checks and he's great, we're really happy.

"When I talk to him about the rape and the case he gets angry, he's bound to be, but I've told him that's in my past and I want him and our son to stay separate from it.

"When I first found out I was pregnant I began to worry and I dreaded having a girl because I wouldn't have allowed her to go out anywhere. So I'm glad I had a boy and he really is a blessing in disguise."