Karen is a 45-year-old secretary and single mum, living in London. She is also a victim of drug-rape. Here, she recalls her ordeal at the hands of a man she trusted, and tells the NEWS SHOPPER how she became involved in helping other victims through the Drug Rape Trust...

Fourteen months have passed since the most frightening experience of my life and only the other day, I was on my way to work when I had a flashback that brought me out in a cold sweat.

It was a vision of me on top of a man I hardly knew - the man who raped me while I was senseless after hed spiked my drink.

My son was involved in sport and this man was an official at his club. Id gone to his house to discuss a project my son was involved in.

There was nothing at all between us and no way would I have fancied him - and I was just being sociable when I accepted a glass of wine.

I trusted him. Even when he went to the kitchen a little while later and offered me a second glass, I didnt suspect a thing.

But after two mouthfuls, my throat closed and my head went.

For two days, I had absolutely no idea what had happened to me.

The next morning, he woke me up in his bed and I saw a bottle on the floor.

I went to the bathroom but found I couldnt go for a wee because I was hurting. I ached and felt like Id spent a night on the tiles.

Then I went to work and just shut down.

I knew something had happened to me but when I rang my doctor and tried to explain, I realised I didnt know what.

I told a colleague at work and they put me in touch with the police in my area.

When I went to meet a detective, I told him: "I dont even know why Im here."

The police took me to a rape centre and I was medically examined.

But it was only when I was sent to a "safe house" with a male chaperone from the police that some aspects of what had happened to me began to filter back.

Over the next five days, I remembered my whole body had been paralysed. I couldnt scream, I couldnt do anything.

There were flashes of me on top of him and his voice commanding me to turn over, and I remembered being severely jolted when hed assaulted me with the bottle.

It scared the life out of me. Ive had it said to me: "Surely, you must know if youve been raped?"

But I didnt until then.

When it finally dawned on me what had happened, I felt dirty.

I felt people were looking at me all the time. I didnt want to wear any of my clothes.

I wanted to hide away.

The last year has been a rollercoaster. There have been spells when I have lost my memory.

I was so ill that I had to take two months off work.

My employers have been every good. They even paid for me to see a psychologist.

The police were excellent, but the man who raped me was never charged.

He was arrested two days after the attack but by the time I was examined, the drug had worn off and there were no traces of it, whatever it was. It was his word against mine.

Luckily, I had friends I could turn to, but without the support I was given, I would not be here today.

A couple of months after the rape, a friend saw Peter Sturmans name in a newspaper and put me in touch with him. He was carrying out research on drug-assisted rape and spent a lot of time talking to me.

In October, I went to a fund-raising event for Peters Drug Rape Trust and he told me about his Telephone Friends network, which puts callers who have suffered drug-rape in touch with other victims.

I agreed to become a telephone friend and have since spoken to two other victims.

One of them experienced very similar feelings to me, and it helped us both to talk.

Being raped is bad enough but to be drug-raped robs you of your memory as well.

It is the most frightening thing to know you have been completely controlled by someone else.

*For more stories like this, visit www.crimezone.co.uk

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