An Englishwoman who claims she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Bermuda has warned visitors to be on their guard.

And she slammed Police for dragging their feet on the month-old investigation despite the fact she had provided a name and photo of the alleged attacker.

Yolande Lindridge, a 49-year-old mother-of-two, said her ordeal started soon after a taxi picked her up at the Sonesta Beach Hotel -- to take her to the Airport for her flight home on March 10.

She said the driver diverted to a beach and performed "unpleasant sex acts''.

She said: "I was lucky to get away with my life and without being raped,'' she said.

"The driver kidnapped me. He was into all sorts of illegal sexual things.'' When she returned home she got in touch with Police in Bermuda.

"I had two conversations with (Assistant Commissioner) Carlton Adams and he said there was a file on this man but he had never been prosecuted.

"He told me Bermudian taxi drivers would be up in arms about this.

"He said they were going to arrest him and they would send a Policeman over to see me.

"An officer came over and was very nice. But since then Carlton Adams hasn't wanted to speak to me.'' And she said efforts to get copies of her statements faxed to England for her to check had been ignored.

Ms Lindridge also said her hotel had a duty of care to ensure checks had been carried out on taxi drivers before they were trusted on jobs.

She said: "The driver turned up with my name on a piece of paper -- he clearly knew he was picking up a lone woman.

"I had asked to share the taxi with someone else but they said I was the only person going on the British Airways flight.'' "Hotels should have a sense of responsibility for the safety and security of the tourists. The Police and the hotel should be liaising with each other about safety.

"I was in trauma for three weeks. When I got back my GP offered to immediately admit me into a mental hospital and to give me medication but I refused both.

"How would you like to come back from a holiday and have to be offered that? "Yet the day before all this I was swimming with dolphins in Dockyard.

"I am not sleeping properly. Since that night I wake up every one or two hours all through the night.'' Ms Lindridge, a safety training expert, said despite her ordeal in the cab she had kept cool enough to take a picture of the beach and had managed to snap the driver's profile.

"I had a camera in my bag, got it out and pointed the camera toward his side of the car. He leant back, but I got him anyway.'' She says she got his name by leaning forward to give the driver a business card and then sneaking a look at his taxi identification card.

After about half an hour, she says she persuaded the driver to resume the journey to the airport.

On her return to Kent, she developed the picture and informed Police.

A Bermuda Police officer and a UK constable recently called at Ms Lindridge's home near Maidstone, Kent, as part of the investigation.

A Bermuda Police spokeswoman said yesterday: "Police are investigating a report of alleged inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature involving a tourist.

"The incident occurred earlier as the female victim was travelling on a public service vehicle.

"The visitor has since left the Island and the investigation has continued with an officer travelling overseas to interview the complainant.

"There have been no arrests to date.'' Ms Lindridge says the Island favoured by film couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones is not quite the paradise it may seem.

And now the British press has picked up on her story with national paper The Daily Mail and the local press set to run the story.

Ms Lindridge, who runs her own safety training business in Chatham, told her local paper in Kent that Bermuda has unsolved crime (including the notorious torture, rape and murder of Canadian teenager Rebecca Middleton), drug dealing and AIDS.

She complained about this week's edition of British TV holiday programme Wish You Were Here featuring Michael Douglas -- the owner of Ariel Sands Hotel in Devonshire -- for extolling the Island but failing to point out the dangers.

"Bermuda looks like paradise on earth,'' she said. "It has so much to offer tourists. However, it needs to sell `safety' to potential tourists, especially women and young children, before it can sell `paradise'.'' She has urged tourism officials and Police to "apply the principles of risk assessment and risk management to visitor safety in order to restore tourism and profits''.

Ms Lindridge visited Bermuda for rest and recuperation but The Royal Gazette understands she also gave a talk about child safety at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

There were 40 sexual assaults last year, two of them on visitors, which was two down on the year before.

And there was a rash of incidents between August and December last year, when a number of women were the victims of violence or sex attacks.

It led to the Women's Resource Centre and the Opposition United Bermuda Party to call for mace or pepper spray to be legalised so women could carry it as a means of protection.

However crime in Bermuda dropped 23 percent last year including a 12 percent drop in major crime including murder, attempted murder, assault, grievous bodily harm and sexual assault.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises visitors of "occasional incidents of petty drug-related crime''.

The FCO said visitors should take the same sensible precautions they would at home to ensure their personal safety, and to safeguard their possessions.