20-YEAR-OLD GIRL KILLS HERSELF BECAUSE SHE WAS TOO AFRAID TO APPEAR IN COURT WITH THE MAN WHO RAPED HER

Ceri, who was snatched off the street and raped on a night out with friends, was terrified of reliving her nightmare in court

Mum Eleri Linden battled for a frantic 45 minutes to save her dying daughter Ceri after the 20-year-old took an overdose.

Ceri – snatched off the street and raped on a night out with friends – had been terrified of reliving her nightmare in court.

And tragically, she had made sure she took enough of her mum’s blood pressure pills to spare herself more torment.

Herself a mum with a two-year-old daughter, Ceri was attacked as she was out celebrating after landing an interview to finally get to university.

But everything she still had to live for stood on the other side of one unendurable obstacle – standing up in court and facing the lies of the man who raped her while he claimed she had come on to him, had kissed him and had consented to his sickening advances.

Eleri, 50, told the Sunday Mirror: “Ceri was my best friend and I’ll never forget watching her die.

 Tragedy: Ceri Linden pictured with her daughter
"She couldn’t cope with what had happened to her and the idea of going to court made everything so much worse.

"It’s no wonder rape conviction rates are so low, no victim wants to relive that in court and be torn apart by lawyers.”

Ceri’s overdose came just five days after she climbed into the back of a BMW believing it was a taxi.

She gave the driver the name of a bar in town and asked him to wait for her friends. Instead, he sped off, taking her to his own house.

Before she took her own life, Ceri had helped police catch her attacker, Masood Mansouri.

In a videoed interview so distressing that Eleri has never been able to watch it, she told in detail of the attack.

She told officers how she managed to escape when Mansouri, 33, went to the toilet and of hiding in bushes as he prowled the streets trying to find her again.

And in April, Ceri’s case made legal history as her video evidence helped convict him.

                        Jailed: Mansood Mansouri was convicted by Ceri's evidence beyond the grave
Mansouri was jailed for 13 years for kidnap, rape and sexual assault, and is likely to be deported to his native Iran on his release.

It was the first time that a rape conviction had been secured without the victim being cross-examined.

Now Eleri wants other rape victims to be spared the trauma of taking the stand against their attackers.

The mum from Colwyn Bay, North Wales, who is now helping to raise her granddaughter Bethan with Ceri’s ex Sam Brammer, said: “Ceri’s case proves it’s possible to get a conviction without it.

“Why should they be punished even more if there is enough evidence to convict their rapist without taking the stand?”

Police had assured Ceri she could testify via video link but the ordeal of facing Mansouri’s defence team was too much.