My sister made this trip most nights since starting work to pay off studentdebts. She knew the danger of walking home at night by herself . . . as every woman does . . . but it was a risk she had to take. The bus stop was only a couple of hundred metres from our house.

Only one or two other people were left now, so as the bus rounded the corner near her stop, she decided to look as though she was getting off. If he was following her, as her intuition suggested, he would have to get up now too.

But he didn't. She pressed the bell for her stop at the last second, a trick she often employed when her mind was being over-active. As her foot touched the pavement, she heard him run off the bus behind her.

"This couldn't be happening, " she thought, before dismissing the voice in her head as paranoid. After the bus disappeared, she crossed over the road and walked slowly along the path. He would have to pass her out if he wasn't following her. But he slowed down too.

It was after 4am on 9 July 2005 and there was no one else around. He grabbed her by the throat with a sharp object and swung her around, desperately looking for somewhere to bring her.

Then he subjected her to the most harrowing experience of her life. "It was like a film, I just couldn't believe it was actually happening to me, " she says.

He dragged her into a garden, hit her repeatedly, strangled and stripped her.

"You're not so glamorous now, " he taunted her repeatedly. She lost consciousness for a while. He bit her so hard all over her body that she bled. She cried out, telling him to stop. He told her if she made any noise he would kill her. Using a key to violate her body, she writhed in agony. Then he made her describe what he was doing to her.

He said he was going to bring her to his house in Tallaght, on the other side of the city. She pleaded with him to let her go, but after ordering her to get dressed, he dragged her miles down the road.

As he repeatedly bit her hand and bashed her head against a wall, threatening to kill her, she was sure she was walking to the end of her life. She inhaled deeply the smell of summer exuding from the hedgerows. "When I first smelt the summer air this year, I was catapulted back to that night. It will always be bittersweet for me, " she says.

A few miles down the road, Dean McLaughlin and Alan O'Connor were making their way home from a night out. Their laughter subsided as they tried to work out what was happening.

They asked her if she was ok.

"No, " she replied, before breaking the hold of her attacker and running as fast as she could, back in the direction of home. As she did so, the two men, with the help of their friend Craig Courtney and Nicholas Goggins, a local man out walking his dog, chased after and caught her abuser until gardai arrived moments later.

She rang my parents. They rushed out in the car to collect her, and went immediately to the garda station. Accompanied by Garda Margo Kennedy, she was brought to hospital before making her statement.

The aftermath Nearly 14 hours later, after numerous tests and interviews, she sat on the couch. Exhausted, but reluctant to go to bed because of the dreams she feared would come, she looked blankly at the TV screen, gaining comfort from the thought that at least he was locked-up.

But he wasn't. As she sat there, bruised and swollen, with bloodstains all over her body, her aggressor was being driven back to his home on the other side of Dublin.

It took five months for Karl Murray, 33, of Killakee Park, Firhouse, Tallaght, Dublin, to be charged while the book of evidence against him was being prepared. She remained petrified, particularly at night, that he would come back to hurt her. He knew where she lived.

"Everywhere I walked, I'd look out for him, especially at the bottom of my road, " she says.

Getting back to a normal life was impossible no matter how hard she tried, "Everything was different. I just wanted something to happen so that I could see some form of validation, " she says.

Charges We were all disappointed to learn there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge of 'rape under section 4' against Murray, as her DNA found on the key could have been transferred from his hand. Furthermore, under Irish law, there is no such thing as 'digital rape' as there is in most other Western jurisdictions.

Consequently, Murray was charged with 'aggravated sexual assault', 'assault causing harm' and 'false imprisonment' in Bray District Court in December.

Investigating Garda Det Sgt Joe O'Hara and Det Garda Brian Maher kept her informed at all times of any developments and were with her throughout each court appearance.

But when the time came to enter court for the first time, she was paralysed by fear. So instead, she crouched in the car while my mother went in to see what happened.

It wasn't until Murray's next court appearance in March that she felt able to face her attacker. "Seeing him as a human, I suddenly realised I could fight him."

She counted the days between each court appearance. "Everything else is superseded by it. You live your life, but in the back of your mind, it's always there. I just wanted some sort of vindication."

The depression was at times almost unbearable for her. She often thought of taking her own life. "I felt I couldn't live in a world where life could be this hard and someone you don't know could be so evil and merciless."

Sentencing In May, Murray pleaded guilty to 'aggravated sexual assault'. Initially distraught because she thought the other charges would not be taken into account, she learned it is common procedure for lesser offences to be subsumed into the greater ones when the defendant pleads guilty. Finally, he was remanded into custody. On 19 June, Murray was due to be sentenced. Although nervous, she was looking forward to finally getting the chance to speak.

An apology was read out on his behalf by his defence but she rejects it because it could never be genuine. "He had to have decided what he was going to do even before he got on the bus. After that, he had the best part of an hour to think about it, before he calmly attacked me. It couldn't possibly be genuine. He knew what he was doing and women need to be protected from men like him, " she says.

When Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced Murray to nine years in prison, she immediately looked up at me, smiling. It was the first time I saw her eyes light up in over a year.

My sister is now on anti-depressants and attends a counsellor. She says: "My world is now the equivalent of a warzone. I mentally prepare myself for being attacked each time I walk by a male person whom I don't know. I know it's something you don't get over. It's something you live with or you simply choose not to live.

"I hope other people who've been attacked feel they are able to come forward because although there were times where I felt no one was listening, I had great experiences . . . with the gardai in particular. I guess ultimately, part of the healing process in any of these kinds of cases is fighting for yourself, and even if the outcome isn't what you hoped for, the most tangible way you can do that is through the system."