Most people would agree with the idea that the victims of rapes and other serious sexual assaults are entitled to some measure of protection of their identities.

The psychological effects of a serious sexual assault are often worse than the original injuries.

Shame, the loss of a sense of personal security, a terror of intimacy. All of these are well known effects.

Worse, when the victim is a woman, as is almost always the case, there will be people who will somehow find a way to blame her rather than the man.

With all of that to deal with, those people who choose to keep their right to confidentiality have every right to do so, and no right-thinking person would blame them.

However, that makes the decision of a victim to come forward all the more courageous. Lyndsay Brooks, the 24-year-old who was held hostage by her former boyfriend and sexually assaulted at knifepoint, told her story on Saturday after her assailant was imprisoned for 14 years. She deserves a medal for this act of courage. That's because, no matter how justified the restrictions on identification are in these cases, they inevitably make the victim seem somehow less than real. When you can put a name to the victim, and in Ms Brooks' case, a face, since she also agreed to be photographed, it must bring the severity of the assault home to the general public.

Ms Brooks is a wife and a daughter. She has friends, work colleagues, old schoolmates. One day she may have children of her own. She is a human being, not an anonymous victim.

Too many of us fail to understand the real horror of rape and sexual assault. It is "something that happens to other people". Too often too many of us blame the victim, and are quick to pick up on some character flaw to prove the defendant's innocence.

Too often too many of us are inclined to give credence to the defendant's version of events, even when that version is illogical.

When it is a case of a husband and wife, or two people living together, or two people who used to have a relationship, this is all the more likely.

And yet it is wrong. No does mean no. Inviting a man in for a cup of coffee is not an invitation for sex. A relationship — past or present — does not give a person ownership of the other person's body.

As Chief Justice Richard Ground said on Friday: "Those who are going to commit violence against women need to know that a relationship does not excuse it." Indeed. The sad part is that this message is still required in 2005.

But it does, and that is partly because the victim often does not get the opportunity to tell the jury just what the assault has done to him or her, at least before conviction.

As Ms Brooks said: "I'm going to be traumatised for the rest of my life by what he did, but justice has been served. People hardly ever get convicted of serious sexual assault."

It can only be hoped that Ms Brooks' courageous act will help to ensure that justice is served more often.