A rape victim yesterday revealed that she faced an uphill battle to have her case first investigated by Police and then prosecuted.

The woman, a French national, was raped on New Year?s Eve, 2001 and she believed her assailant spiked her drink with some kind of date rape drug.

On Monday, Albert Antonio Wolffe, 44, of Pembroke, was convicted of sexual assault and is now awaiting sentence.

But the conviction came only after she spent two and a half months convincing the Police to take her claims seriously, to get evidence processed and later to convince prosecutors to proceed with the case.

And the case also involved having US authorities intervene to arrest and deport Wolffe after he skipped bail after being charged in Magistrates? Court.

But the woman said long before Wolffe was ever charged, she had trouble getting the Police to take her seriously after she was found wandering on Dundonald Street in a disoriented state with no trousers on in the early hours of New Year?s Day, 2002.

A sex assault test taken that morning revealed she had semen inside her, but she believes that her complaint was initially not taken seriously because she could not remember anything of the rape that night.

?Everything started really badly, nothing was moving ? maybe the Police expected me to leave the Island, return to France and forget about it,? the woman said. ?I think this is why they were not involved at the beginning ? they just thought I would leave Bermuda.?

Instead, she remained on the Island for four months to make sure the case would be pursued.

She said she saw a hypnotist in Bermuda shortly after the rape to try to spark her memory.

?I had no flashbacks ? nothing. Because of this I thought I?d been drugged.

?I understand they found a lot of alcohol in my body but my receipt from Blue Juice Bar, that night showed I only had three drinks. After I drank the third drink (a glass of Champagne) ? ten minutes later I don?t remember anything.?

It was only when Police Sgt. Cheryl Watts took on the investigation two and a half months after the incident that the victim felt something was being done.

?As soon as Sgt. Cheryl Watts became involved in the case things started moving,? she said. ?If Sgt. Watts was involved in the case from the beginning, we would not have pieces of the puzzle missing.?

Even after Sgt. Watts became involved there were still stumbling blocks, the woman said.

When Wolffe was arrested, his blood was taken to see if his DNA matched that of the semen found after her sexual assault examination.

But the victim was told by Police that it would take nine months to receive the DNA results from a Canadian laboratory. The victim said French Consul Edgar Humann intervened and contacted a French Police representative in Washington, DC.

The representative then contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who were conducting the DNA tests and was able to get them to send back the results in two weeks, the victim said. The results showed there was a match.

Even then, she claimed then-Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Khamisi Tokunbo, refused to prosecute her case in 2002 saying there was not enough evidence. She claimed Governor Sir John Vereker intervened and encouraged the DPP to prosecute the case.

?If it wasn?t for the Governor I would have never had a trial,? she said. ?If he had not pushed, it would have taken longer. ?

However, several Government officials questioned the woman?s claim.

Mr. Tokunbo said of the case: ?I have nothing to say about that. I do not know what you are talking about.?

And Deputy Governor Nick Carter told : ?The Governor cannot order the DPP to prosecute a case. He doesn?t have that power.?

The current DPP, Kulandra Ratneser said: ?Mr. Tokunbo would have had to approve the indictment.?

Wolffe was charged during the summer of 2002 and released on bail. He was supposed to appear for Supreme Court arraignments in August but failed to show having he left the Island for the US.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) caught Wolffe in New York and locked him up for being an illegal alien, the victim said, and he was deported back to Bermuda.

An original trial date was set for November 17, 2003 but was pushed back until April 5 this year.

?I had been waiting two years and did not have any hope. I didn?t think I would get a trial, she said.

She has since learned that six expatriates had similar stories to hers.

?About six woman that we know of had something similar happen to them. Most of them were American. They put complaints in but left the Island before pursuing them ? so nothing was done.?

The victim has been contacted by three Bermudian rape victims who read about her case.

Of the case, the victim said: ?For me it is not finished ? I need to hear the sentence.?