A wife and mother who endured 16 years of anguish after a horrific rape says advances in science which finally snared her attacker have given her a life back.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus at her home, she said the guilty verdict on rapist Martin Done had allowed her to start working through the years of pain and anxiety suffered while her unidentified attacker was still at large.

"I'm still a bit numb to be honest," she said. "Never in my wildest dreams, after waiting so long, did I think the verdict would happen.

"It's been frightening because I've never been able to relax in company. In a restaurant I've always had to sit with my back to the wall so I can see people coming in. I couldn't ever go out unless I was with someone."

A major advance in forensic technology led to ten years' jail for 44-year-old Keighley man Done, who brutally raped the woman.

Done was caught after his DNA linked him to the sex attack on the 22-year-old mother of a six-week-old baby in her Keighley home. He sneaked in wearing a Ku Klux Klan-style hood with diamond-shaped eye holes and threat-ened her and her baby with a knife.

The jury of six men and six women took three hours to re-turn a guilty verdict at Leeds Crown Court after the five day trial.

Done, of Grange Grove, Riddlesden, a band-knife operator who was living in Ingrow, Keighley, at the time, was ar-rested in June last year after detectives in Bradford, working on Operation Recall in which they use DNA to tackle unsolved crimes, made a "hit" on the national DNA database.

The court heard there was a one in a billion chance that Done was not the rapist.

He claimed in court he was 40 miles away working in Oldham at the time of the incident on Friday, May 19, 1989.

The woman told the T&A knowing Done was locked up had given her great comfort.

"To me, it doesn't matter that it was only ten years - for 16-and-a-half years I walked around this planet not knowing which man it was.

"Now I know. He can't come after me any more. He can't come near me."

But the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said Tuesday's guilty verdict had allowed her do something for the first time in years.

"I went shopping for the first time and I was going around grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"People must have thought I was off my rocker. I bought something, got in my car and drove home.

"If someone had given me a million pounds it wouldn't have brought me close to the feeling that gave me."

She said the week-long Leeds Crown Court trial had been one of the most difficult periods of her life.

"In May when they arrested him, me and my husband were excited like little kids. It was wonderful news, but then the stress begins to build. "You don't know if he will plead guilty or not, and if you will have to give evidence."

She said the harrowing nature of the trial had even left her questioning if she could carry on.

"I had to take the stand and there's a trauma that goes with that. At one point I thought it was the biggest mistake of my life.

"To listen to Done on the stand, he was so cocky in his answers. He obviously rehearsed them. He was like an automaton."

But under cross-examination by prosecution barrister Rod-ney Jameson, Done's evidence began to fall apart.

"Mr Jameson is very quietly spoken and the calmer he re-mained, the more it riled Done. He became flustered and angry. He was almost shouting."

Speaking of the moment the verdict was announced, she said: "To then hear the word 'guilty' was incredible. I burst into tears - I was shocked from head to feet. I remember stand-ing up and nearly falling back down.

"It allowed me to feel how I had not felt for a long time."

She added: "You reach a point where you think you've got over it, but I realised I would only really start getting over it when I heard the word 'guilty'.

"You really realise the pain you were carrying around with you. It's like someone has flicked a switch - it's an amaz-ing pain relief.

"It's really hard to get over something that was a huge part of your life for 16-and-a-half-years. It had stopped me having the career I wanted. I will now go back to my job and not have so much time off because I have been feeling stressed. They can't wait until I come back."

She said she was full of admira-tion for the police and thanked family liaison officers who helped her through the ordeal, and detectives who carefully retained DNA samples in the hope the case would one day be revisited

"I have had nothing but respect for the police. Their efforts have been incredible and I think they were more devas-tated than me when we didn't get the man first time."

She said scientific progress had played a huge part in helping her to rehabilitate.

"The advances in DNA profil-ing have handed me my life back. They've allowed me to start feeling normal again."

She said above all she hoped women who had suffered simi-lar experiences would draw strength, knowing that convic-tions were within reach.

"It is really important the mes-sage goes out to victims that the police are waiting to listen to you - you will be believed.

"The police do take it person-ally. They care about you and help in so many ways. You cannot pretend it won't be traumatic - it's not an easy process, but I think you have to have trust."