Woman attacked by rapist in toilet recounts assault

A sex attack survivor has spoken of the moment a convicted rapist set upon her in a hospital toilet.

Lee James Mullen, 38, from Flint, assaulted the woman in a cubicle at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, after she had visited a friend.

He has been jailed for life for sexually assaulting and beating the woman, named Maggie, six months after he was released from prison.

It only stopped when Maggie's husband checked on her, causing Mullen - who was ordered to serve a minimum term of seven years - to flee.

Warning: distressing content

Maggie, who has waived her right to anonymity, said her ordeal began when she opened the cubicle door after hearing a man's voice.

Mullen then put his hand over her mouth and demanded sex.

"I was going to say you're in the wrong toilet, or 'what are you doing in here?' or whatever," Maggie said.

"But I didn't get a chance to do anything like that."

Maggie said she told Mullen she couldn't hear him, and told him "no" when he repeated he wanted sex.

"Then he removed his hand from my face slightly, then put it back and started punching me," she said.

Mullen punched Maggie 25 to 30 times, hitting her again as she lay on the floor "playing dead", the court heard, and sexually assaulted her.

Maggie said she had "been though hell," adding: "I thought I was going to die on that floor."

The first four weeks after the attack were the ones Maggie found hardest.

During that time she said she "hated and detested" her attacker.

"I don't any more because hate is an emotion that takes everything out of you," she said.

"And I refuse to let him take anything else away from me."

Physically Maggie has started to heal, after she was left covered in blood with numerous bruises to her face and neck, as well as broken dentures.

Maggie said: "My face is still damaged. As you can see, I've got no teeth at the moment... they are on order.

"It's the psychological damage that is the worst. It's not just to me, it's to my family, it's to my friends, it's to people who don't even really know me - but who won't go into a toilet, a public toilet now, just in case.

"Because at the end of the day these predators walk among us every day, and unless they're branded, we'd never know."

Maggie, in her early 60s, told Mold Crown Court while "this could have happened to anyone, better it be me than a 90-year-old woman who may never recover or a young child or one of the 'angels' who walk the wards keeping us safe".

Mullen had been released from prison on licence in June last year after being jailed for 11 years for raping and assaulting a woman in 2015.

He had been visiting an acquaintance at Glan Clwyd on 10 December and also taking cocaine and drinking alcohol.

Mullen was arrested the morning after the attack after being traced by identification in a bag he left at the hospital.

Maggie read her own personal statement in court and said: "I don't think he was finished with what he wanted to do that night... my husband is my hero."

She described the pain of missing family events in the run up to Christmas and then having to tell her grandchildren that "a nasty man" had caused her injuries but that "the police had got him".

Despite the physical and emotional toll of the attack, Maggie said she had returned to work a few weeks later.

"I was determined not to let him win," she said, adding although she believed she was going to die that night she would "rise like a phoenix from the ashes".

Sentencing Mullen, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: "This is one of those exceptional situations where a life sentence can be justified.

"You are an extremely dangerous sexual predator and the risk you pose to others is likely to continue for the foreseeable future."

After the hearing, Det Ch Insp Simon Kneale of North Wales Police said he welcomed the sentence, adding: "Whilst the lives of the victim and her family have been irreversibly affected, I hope they draw some comfort from seeing Mullen facing a lengthy detention."

Teresa Owen, executive director of allied health professionals at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said the attack "had a profound effect on staff who were on duty that night, as well as other colleagues who work at Glan Clwyd Hospital".

"We will never accept violence in any form, against anyone on our healthcare sites," she said.

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