A tragic life lived with dignity . . .

Sad to hear that Stephanie Slater, the Birmingham estate agent who hit the headlines when she was kidnapped in 1992, has died, aged 50, after being diagnosed with cancer.

I remember the case so vividly. Stephanie was taken captive by Michael Sams, who posed as a potential house-buyer. She was held for eight days in a cramped makeshift wooden coffin inside a wheelie bin.

during her ordeal she was raped by Sams, who had kidnapped and killed Julie dart a few months earlier.

Stephanie was freed after a ransom was paid by her employer. She later moved to the Isle of Wight, but never really recovered from her ordeal.

Before her kidnap, she was a happy young woman with a boyfriend and a future. afterwards, she never married, nor had children. Sometimes the ground opens beneath your feet, and nothing can ever fill the abyss.

at first, Stephanie kept it a secret that Sams had raped her, because she didn’t want to further upset her mother. It’s so humbling to think of this traumatised young woman, clinging onto the wreckage, but still thinking of others before herself. and now this early death from cancer.

Poor, poor Stephanie. Through no fault of their own, some people live unlucky lives. She was one of them.

Following her death, police officials paid tribute to her courage over the years for the work she did in helping them and other kidnap victims. She managed to wrest something positive out of the horror of her abduction.

Sams is still in prison. he has attacked a female officer, made official complains about his prison bed being too hard and made false claims that Stephanie was in love with him.

This is very unchristian of me, but I hope he rots.