Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The moment before I was raped... and 2 years on I’m still fighting for justice
IT looks like such a happy memory – a young British tourist posing for one last holiday snap before heading to the airport to fly home.
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 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 £1,750 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 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
the DNA – but all the time holding me down and telling me not to make any noise, not to cry.
“They told me to stop being a baby as well. The doctor was really cruel to me. It was horrible.”
The injections were antiretrovirals – used to suppress HIV – and antibiotics. She was also given emergency contraceptive pills.
Kate was then taken to Portimao’s Judiciary Police. She claims she wasn’t given a glass of water for four hours and had to wait for three more until she could phone mum Deborah Stanton, 56, back home in Suffolk.
It was the hardest call of her life. Kate adds: “I could hear her heart breaking. I said ‘Mum, I’ve been raped.’
“The screaming cry from her, it was so painful to hear. Telling my mum what had happened made it all real.
“I’d been so desperate to talk to her as I’d been in this room with seven male officers, all talking Portuguese.”
Curado de Sousa was picked up by police and Kate, battered and bruised, picked him out at an ID parade.
She goes on: “The other side of the glass, there was the man that raped me. He was smiling. It was as traumatising as being raped. I started crying hysterically. Six hours before, this man had raped me.”
Kate later flew home alone to Stansted Airport, Essex, and a heartbreaking reunion with her mum.
She continues: “Mum grabbed me and burst into tears. That was the first time it felt over. We had the hour’s journey home and I just lay on her lap like a child. She was stroking my head and petting my face.”
Back in Hadleigh, Suffolk, Kate stayed in bed for a week. She suffered nightmares and broke down often. Deborah is a trained psychotherapist and helped Kate cope. But even with that support, the effect on Kate’s life was seismic. She quit uni, only goes out in groups of three or more and crosses the road to avoid men.
DEVASTATED
The legal process has been especially debilitating. First, she received a letter asking her if she wanted to take Curado de Sousa to court.
It took 18 months for that to happen and, while he was entitled to legal aid, she had to use Pro Bono Portugal, a group of voluntary lawyers who offer counsel to those who cannot afford it.
She and her family only met their lawyer two hours before the case came to Lagos Court in October 2018.
Before the hearing, Kate was offered an apology and expenses to walk away. When she refused, De Sousa admitted his guilt. He was later given a four-and-a-half year suspended sentence and ordered to pay damages.
Kate was devastated. And the toll on her parents weighs heavy too. Deborah, who now lives in Harrogate, North Yorks, says: “There are no words to describe the feeling when your daughter tells you she’s been raped. You have this anger, this frustration, this deep pain, this fear.
“I wanted to be there with her, hold her, to keep her safe and I couldn’t. It has really changed her personality.
“She doesn’t want it to happen to anyone else. She’s going to use it to help others, she is not letting it beat her. I am so proud of her.”
Dad James, 52, who is separated from Deborah, feels guilt at not being able to protect Kate. He adds: “I thought the most painful thing would be to hear what happened to her, but the most painful thing is the fallout.” Kate has made a fresh start in Bristol. She is a chef and lives with boyfriend Mark Evans, 34.
She plans to appeal Curado de Sousa’s sentence and has been told a higher court will hear the case. That battle for justice is driving her on. She adds: “It’s really, really important to
speak up.”