Raped mum opens up about twenty-year wait for justice while attacker partied with stars

A MUM who was raped eight times in her own home has finally got justice after her attacker was jailed twenty years later.

Lynda Donnelly, 45, was brutally raped in her house in South-East London in 1996 as her two young children lay sleeping in their bedrooms.

While she recovered and struggled to cope with the aftermath. Her attacker, Pierre Antoine Bate, moved to the US and embarked on a successful career as a music producer, partying with celebrities and film stars.

But he has finally been brought to justice by the Met police's cold case team, and this summer was found guilty of eight counts of rape and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Lynda fought for years to keep cops looking for her attacker as they made a catalogue of embarrassing mistakes. She learnt that vital evidence had been destroyed, and at one stage was even told her case didn't exist.

Bate, now 42, broke into her family home in Thornton Heath and told Lynda his "mates" were with her children, who were sleeping in their rooms just seconds away. He told her to stay silent or he'd hurt them, before blindfolding her and raping her eight times in a sickening attack which lasted four hours.