Brave South Yorkshire victim of sexual assault shares her story as ITV drama Broadchurch continues

A victim of sexual violence from South Yorkshire has waived her right to anonymity in order to share her story as ITV drama series Broadchurch looks at the issue.

The programme follows a fictional police investigation into a violent sexual crime and its impact on the community.

It has prompted Donna Vincent to speak publicly about the day in May last year when she was attacked by an unknown man in the Handsworth area of Sheffield.

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Please be aware, some of the details in her story may be distressing and upsetting.

“This was a sexually motivated attack, but I do actually think I would have been murdered,” says 45-year-old Donna, as she talks about a violent sexual assault that rocked her local community to the core.

“It was 2 May, 2016 – a beautiful bank holiday Monday – and I was taking my little dog Ralph for a walk. It was a normal walk, a walk I’ve done since I was a kid on fields I’ve known my whole life.

“I was making my way home when I came to a fork in the road – I saw a woman walking with two collie dogs on the right-hand path and thought, I can’t take Ralph down there because he’s only little. So I looked at the left-hand path and saw a man. I couldn’t see that he had a dog with him so that’s the path I chose.

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“As I started walking towards him I was thinking about whether I recognised him. Having lived in the area my whole life, I know a lot of people that live in the community. I didn’t recognise him and he was looking down at his phone when all of a sudden, he ran at me full speed.

“He went to knock me to the floor, and I didn’t go down. He then started to hit me on my head and face, so we had a bit of a fight before I got knocked to the ground.”

It is believed Donna briefly lost consciousness when she fell to the floor, but she continues: “When I came round, I could see this man and Ralph in front of me, we were in the field now and he was dragging me by my jeans to a nearby hedge.

“I was screaming and shouting out for help, when I heard a woman (who I know now to be the woman who was walking her collie dogs, Sue) yell back that she was coming.

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“Her shouting was enough to scare this man off and he ran away. He kept looking behind him as he ran, but I got up and ran towards Sue. She was actually much further away than I thought, but I ran to her with Ralph and felt an immense sense of relief that I was alright, that I was alive."

The initial response

In the moments after the attack, Donna recalls people running from all over the field to come to her aid: “I must have been screaming much louder than I thought, because there was one man who had run after the bloke, a couple who were the other side of the field and came running over… I called 999 and within what seemed like seconds there was a helicopter in the air and I had an officer calling me to find out where I was, as he had the police dog so we went to where the man ran off and away he went.

“A young PC stayed with me the whole time and sat with me until two lady PCs came to pick me up and take me home. I was already being told ‘be careful and keep your hands in your pockets so we can get any evidence’. I thought this was really good because in that situation you just want to hug everyone, but you have to remember that you might have evidence on you and it’s really important that the police have that so they can catch the person responsible.

“After such a horrific ordeal, the police were lovely. They were sympathetic, everyone was treating me really nicely. They listened so carefully and treated me so well, but equally were professional enough to get the information they needed because at that stage, evidence is key.

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“From there, after the evidence was recovered and photographs taken – I had some injuries from the attack – I was taken to a police station where again, I was treated so well. The police response was absolutely fantastic and they got my statement from me while it was all fresh in my mind and I could offer a good description of the suspect.

“I was so keen that this man was caught that, even though it was a very traumatic experience, I tried really hard to focus on what happened because I wanted to stop this person and get him off the streets.

“Another thing in my mind was that those fields were predominantly walked on by women with their dogs, something you should be able to do anywhere, so this added to my determination that this man needed to be stopped and I had to try and help the police however I could.”

As an investigation was launched, Donna remembers seeing a marked increase in police officers in the area: “The police were great, they really were – they were out in the community every day, walking those fields, trying to find him. They were speaking to everyone, trying to find anyone who might know anything. They were reassuring the community, because things like that… they don’t happen around there. Those fields are so quiet, it’s a beautiful walk. For the police to spend so much time in the community to put our minds at rest was really important, because everyone knows everyone in that community and everyone knows me.

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“That’s the other thing, the community response – my goodness, did the community pull together! Handsworth gets knocked a lot, but let me tell you that community was amazing.

“I remember laughing with the detectives about one local man, who went up to a couple of women detectives who were in their plain clothes patrolling on the field and told them to stay safe because there’d been an attack and that women shouldn’t be up on the fields walking alone! I mean, that’s so lovely and so Handsworth, it was really brilliant – that’s what the community is like.”

When asked what Donna thought might have happened if Sue, the lady walking her collie dogs nearby, had not come to her aid, she doesn’t hesitate to reply: “I’ve always said that this would have been the worst possible outcome. This was a sexually motivated attack but I do actually think I would have been murdered.

“I think that spot was key, if I’d been unconscious in that hedge you could have walked past and not known I was there. If Sue hadn’t been there and shouted, had it been night-time… it would have been the worst possible scenario.”

How the case came to court

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Donna’s attacker, a 27-year-old man from the Crookesmoor area of Sheffield, was charged with attempted rape. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault at a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court in January 2017 and received an indefinite hospital order.

“From day one, I had absolute faith that we were going to catch this guy,” she says as she talks about the police investigation.

“I know at one point it looked a bit grim, because there were no forensics recovered from the scene and because it happened on a field, there was no CCTV. I remember saying to the officers, you’re going to get this guy because I knew you just wouldn’t let it go.”

Detective Sergeant Anna Sedgwick, whose team worked closely with Sheffield SE LPT officers and the local community, added: “Even though there wasn’t any evidence at the scene, there were actually numerous other women who reported to us that they’d been followed in the days leading up to the attack.

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“Some of those incidents happened in more residential areas so we were able to do a trawl of CCTV cameras, thinking we might have captured the suspect on another occasion. This was a success and we issued a CCTV still to the media and on social media.

“Ultimately, that is how we identified the suspect and as Donna has said, without the fantastic community response he may not have been caught as quickly as he was.

“I also think that Donna really spurred on the team, she was convinced we were going to catch him and this positive attitude really helped us throughout the investigation.”

The role of social media

Talking about the response to the appeals issued on South Yorkshire Police’s social media pages, Donna says: “The social media response was absolutely phenomenal, and that makes you feel good. You feel nice that there are all these people – I mean, from the minute I was attacked there were so many people – who were so keen to find this person and to help in any way they could.

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“I must also take this opportunity to talk about my daughter who helped with all of the social media stuff. I don’t really do social media or Facebook or anything like that, but she put out so many updates and collected so much information that at one point I nicknamed her the ‘armchair detective’ because she was determined to catch this man!

“She was involved in so many different community forums, along with Inspector Jason Booth from the LPT and they were in contact about CCTV. At the press of a button, you have hundreds of people right there and if you can get the community working together, as they did for this case, that’s what it’s all about.

“I think the thing with a crime like this is, nobody wants to think of it happening to their wife, daughter, sister or whoever, so that really helps to pull a community in and ultimately all the work by the police and the public helped catch him.”

Talking about how she prepared for court, Donna explains: “From the very beginning, I was determined that I was going to face this and I was going to face this man in court and be cross-examined if I had to.

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“I wanted to do that because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to another person. I knew it would be daunting and it wouldn’t have been nice, but I was absolutely determined I would go to court and face him.

“I didn’t want to be put in a room and be on a video link, I wanted to be face-to-face. I wanted to face my attacker and say ‘I’m going to give my evidence against you and make sure you don’t do this to anyone else’ and not be afraid.

“When the guilty plea came, I felt frustration and relief. Frustration because I’d been preparing myself for so long to face him and go to court, and for me, if I’d gone to court that would have been final closure to face my attacker for the last time. However, I was also incredibly relieved that I wasn’t going to have to go through that – even though I was prepared to, it was still a relief to find out I didn’t need to.”

Police went 'above and beyond'

After the conviction and sentencing, Donna wrote a letter to the Chief Constable praising the investigative team and SE LPT officers for their compassion and dedication to catching the perpetrator.

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“The police were absolutely amazing – on a daily basis I spoke to officers. They came to visit me and reassure me every step of the way, keeping me informed.

“They came to see me at my worst, really, after such a traumatic situation. But we had such a good relationship from day one, I felt comfortable and I now feel like we’ve become friends which is amazing.

“The hours that were put in to track the suspect, I mean the officers really went above and beyond with what they did.

“I faced evil on that day, but police face it every day. Police are always in front while the rest of us are running back. I’m so full of admiration for everything police do – I don’t know how they do it!”

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At an awards ceremony earlier this year to recognise officers and staff in Sheffield for outstanding work, the investigative team and local officers were formally recognised for their efforts on this case. Donna went to the ceremony to show her support for the team, saying: “It was a cracking investigation really, there was no evidence to start with and ultimately it was my word against his.

“To build up a case from that early stage, to build a case that goes to court and that ultimately lead to him pleading guilty – so much of that work is not seen by the public, the people working behind the scenes to put so much of this together. I got a chance to speak to them all at the awards, which was wonderful to be able to do.”

Donna's advice for other victims

When asked about what advice Donna has for victims of sexual crime, she is incredibly clear: “Stay strong, you’re much stronger than you realise and you can do this. There is no shame in what happened to you – the shame belongs to the attacker, not you.

“I don’t like using the word victim because sexual predators prey on this, they will frighten you into silence and into submission. Don’t do that, speak out and you will gain strength from doing this.

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“Don’t be afraid to come forward and give as much evidence as you can to track these people down. Ultimately, you’re the one who’s going to stop them.

“Once you speak out, once you’re strong… that’s when they lose.

“I feel like I beat my attacker from day one and what was wonderful about my case is that most of the people involved were women – from Sue, the woman walking her dogs who came to help me, to the investigative team of detectives who were primarily women.

“I think you do take strength from that and I always said I wasn’t going to be a victim from this.

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“For me, talking about this case has been the ultimate closure and I really want women to speak out and take strength from my story to find their own voice.”

If you’ve been affected by Donna’s story or wish to report a crime, you can do so by calling police on 101.

Advice and support is also available from Rape Crisis England and Wales, Victim Support and a range of other charities and organisations.