RAPE is a terrible crime. It inflicts immediate agony and terror, alongside long-lasting fear, pain and psychological damage.

A victim can face great difficulties in re-building her life. By one brutal act, the rapist takes hold of his victim in so many ways.

Under such circumstances, it requires courage for a woman who has been raped to report her attack in the hope of securing a conviction.

Such a situation faced the North Yorkshire woman who speaks to this newspaper today. The woman, who did not wish to be named, could have withdrawn into herself locking her suffering inside.

Instead, while still in great shock and distress, she went to the police. By speaking out against the man who raped her, by being prepared to relive the terrible ordeal in court, she helped to secure a conviction.

This was a remarkably courageous act. If she had remained silent, if she had given into her fears, rapist Andrew Bailey would not have been caught. He would have been at liberty to strike again. He could have hurt and harmed other women. Instead, he is in prison where he belongs.

His 20-year-old victim makes many telling comments in the interview on page five, not least her strong belief that "there was no way I was going to let him beat me".

She praises the way the police dealt with her, saying she didn't regret doing so "for one second", and adds that care workers from the Crown Prosecution Service also helped her through the ordeal.

While it is never going to be anything other than difficult for a woman to stand up in court and accuse a man of rape, new procedures are intended to help.

But it still takes incredible guts. This victim deserves the greatest praise.

Updated: 10:09 Friday, August 06, 2004