WHEN a 33-year-old mother of three was attacked only minutes away from her North-East home she was convinced her attacker would strike again.

Her worst fears came true when police knocked at her door more than a year later to tell her he had brutally beaten and raped a woman.

She said: "I knew he would do it again.

"He should have been locked up, but the judge thought that sending him away would not prove anything.

"If he had locked him up then this would not have happened to that poor girl.''

It has been almost two years since Michael Hudson, 17, attacked the woman, who does not wish to be named, as she returned home after a night out with friends in her home village of West Auckland, County Durham.

Last night, the victim recalled the moment she was grabbed by a rapist: "I relive it every time I look out on to the back street," she said.

"I had just said goodnight to my friends and I thought I was home and safe.

"I was only minutes from my house and then seconds later I was pulled down on to the ground.

"I fought and fought with all my life. My friends heard me scream. I was lucky someone came to help me. If they hadn't, I know he would have raped me.

"I was shocked when I found out how old he was."

Hudson was charged with indecent assault, pleading guilty at the last minute he was given a community sentence rather than being sent to prison.

The woman said: "When I went to court, I thought justice would be done.

"I had DNA and everything, but justice did not happen. I had to sit in court with my parents and hear it all and relive it again.

"The sentence more or less knocked me back to square one. I couldn't believe he was back on the street and free to do it again.

"When the police knocked on the door and said they wanted to talk to me again I just said to them 'he's done it again hasn't he?' I just feel so sorry for that woman because this need not have happened to her if justice had been done in the first place.''

Hudson's assault victim was determined to go along to court in a show of support and to see him go to prison.

She said: "I was asked if I would go to court and I said yes. I wanted to help her through it.''

She said she hoped that Hudson would be named so that other women could see who he was and be aware that he was a danger to them.

"As far as I am concerned, if he is old enough to attack and rape women, then he is old enough to be named,'' she said.