British model, 25, comes face-to-face with the waiter who raped and stabbed her as he appears in court in Magaluf four years after attack

Maddison

A British model who was stabbed, raped and left to die on a Spanish holiday island four years ago, today came face to face with her attacker for the first time since her assault.

Cheryl Maddison, 25, of Houghton Le Spring, County Durham, was stabbed in the chest and abandoned in a pool of her own blood, weeks after she had moved to Magaluf, Majorca, to start a new life.

She says the prolonged assault only came to an end when she played dead despite her terrible injuries.

But in a brave show of defiance today, she returned to the palm-fringed isle to face her accused rapist as he appeared in court.

Wearing an ivory blazer and black jeans, Miss Maddison strode confidently into the court in the capital, Palma, and watched proceedings from the public gallery, accompanied by her boyfriend Kain MacDonald, 21.

In stark contrast, Mohamed Fadel El Anssari, a 31 year-old waiter from Morocco, sat in the dock with his head buried in his hands throughout.

He has confessed to the crime of May 2008, claiming he had been high on drink and drugs when it took place.

He has also been questioned in connection with a series of other rapes and sex attacks in the resort, which is a favourite with British tourists.

Miss Maddison bravely waived her right to anonymity last week to tell how El Anssari ambushed her as she was leaving her apartment, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down a flight of stairs back into her home.

Maddison

'I was fighting back, scratching his face and calling for help. But he pressed his thumbs on my windpipe until I passed out.

'When I woke up I was on the floor. I stood up and my feet were slipping and I looked down and it was blood.

'That is when I realised he had stabbed me in the chest.

'He kept on punching me in the back. I was crying and shouting and making quite a lot of noise and that is when he stabbed me in the neck.

'That's when I realised I had to play dead. If I hadn't done that he would have kept going until I was dead.'

Anssari

She said she never saw a knife and police believe he took it from her kitchen during the attack.

Cheryl was taken to hospital, where she had surgery for a collapsed lung and stab wounds.

She spent two weeks in hospital in Spain where she was joined by her distraught mum and one of her sisters, before being allowed home to Murton.

Magaluf is the number one destination for British package tour holidaymakers.

Around 95 per cent of the estimated one million tourists who flock to the resort every year are British.

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