Woman raped on holiday offered manicure as compensation

Georgina Mortimer chose an all-woman company to teach her to sail in the Caribbean she thought it would be the holiday of a lifetime.

What she didn't know was that there had been a spate of sex attacks in St. Lucia.

Thirty hours after she arrived at the villa she woke to find a man in her bedroom with his hands around her throat.

She said; "I had a really strong instinct that I was about to be murdered and I just had this thought going round and round in my head thinking 'I cannot die'."

The 45-year-old said the ordeal was made even worse when the company she had booked the holiday through continued to send her their marketing materials after the attack.

When she wrote to complain she received a message which she says added insult to injury.

The message read: "Dear Georgina, Please find a little treat from us - we booked a massage and a mini manicure for you at a nearby spa and really hope this will as enjoyable as it sounds. Think of you and wishing you well. All the girls at GFS."

The company, Girls for Sail, has since issued a statement saying that they are in complete shock that she was the victim of such a despicable crime and added: "We are passionate about the safety and wellbeing of our customers, and as a female oriented company we have certainly never sought to trivialise Mrs Mortimer's horrendous experience."

Summer Breeze, the owners of the villa who are also facing a claim for negligence, issued a separate statement saying they are putting pressure on police in St. Lucia to catch the attacker.

But both companies have also raised the question of what they call accuracy of other accusations against them.

Vidishi Joshi, Georgina's lawyer, said: "It's disappointing that they're throwing doubt on the accusations that have been made in the press because ultimately at the centre of this is a victim who's gone through a really life-changing event and one that's quite horrific."

It took both companies six weeks to issue a full refund to Georgina and by disputing her account she says they are further prolonging her ordeal.