HITCH-HIKING
Kate Juby, 23, had enjoyed the trip of a lifetime with pals at a Portuguese music and culture festival. But within an hour the road in the background would be her route to hell as she was subjected to a brutal sex attack.
Trusting Kate had been assured that hitch-hiking was safe in the Algarve so she accepted a lift from a passing mechanic.
But Tiago Curado de Sousa shattered that belief by raping her twice as she pleaded for mercy. And more trauma and pain was to follow.
Today she bravely waives anonymity and tells the Irish Sunday Mirror how she watched in horror as Curado de Sousa, 33, walked free from court.
Despite admitting his guilt, he strolled away laughing, arm-in-arm with his wife.
He was later given a suspended sentence and made to pay €2,000 compensation, which Kate donated to a victims’ charity in Portugal.
It was the final insult for Kate who had months of therapy, nightmares and still finds it difficult to work.
She is speaking out today in the hope no other woman faces the same ordeal at the hands of the Portuguese legal system.
DRAGGED
Kate says that from the moment of the attack she “knew my life was different, for the rest of it. I knew I’d never be me again.”
She was in the first year of a food development degree at Liverpool John Moores University when she went to a festival near Aljezur in April 2017. Pictures show her days later, holding a sign, bound for Faro airport.
Curado de Sousa came along but 10 miles into the trip turned on to a side track. He assured worried Kate he had to pick up a car for scrap. That much was true.
But after loading the car he appeared at the side of the truck shouting “Come on baby!”
He dragged her out, pinned her against the vehicle and raped her twice. Brave Kate says: “I thought I was going to die. I kept saying ‘Please don’t kill me’. I said ‘If you do this just please let me go, please don’t murder me.’
“He kept calling me ‘Baby’ which was so disgusting, horrible. I was just screaming. When he let go I grabbed my backpack and ran.”
Kate scrambled through grassland to the main road and flagged down a car. A German couple covered her in a blanket and cared for her until police came.
One nightmare was over... but another was about to Kate seen on beach before she set off hitch-hiking Kate relaxes on Portgual break and, below, showing her injuries begin at nearby Portimao Hospital. Kate goes on: “They pinned me down on a bed and took all my clothes away from me. The doctor told me to stop crying, that I needed to ‘man up’. “They put needles in my arm and injected me with two liquids – I didn’t know what they were. “They took blood samples, then swabbed everywhere to get Kate left, and with her mum