British woman chokes out attempted rapist, receives £500 from court

A British woman received £500 from a court for her efforts in helping them apprehend a criminal whom she choked out when he tried to subdue and rape her last year.

According to a story in The Telegraph, a woman was walking home at around 2 am on Aug. 31 when she was attacked by a man. The man, 39-year-old Mark Willis, allegedly punched her repeatedly then knocked her to the ground and got on top of her. He supposedly told her to be quiet and do as he said and she wouldn’t be hurt. The woman said she cursed at him in response and began fighting back.

The woman, who has trained in kickboxing and taken a self-defense class, says she first tried to armbar Willis. When that didn’t work, she put him in a triangle choke.

“I was stunned for a moment. Again I could feel him grabbing between my legs and pulling at my clothes. My legs were still free so I lifted my left leg up onto his shoulder and around the back of his neck. I crossed my right leg over and squeezed together as hard as I could,” the woman said via The Telegraph.

“He seemed to struggle for air – which was the point! His head was locked down. He lifted his right hand and literally pounded as hard as he could on the side of my face.

“I closed my eyes and held it for as long as I could hoping he would pass out in a few seconds. Then I felt his body go limp. I thought he had lost consciousness or run out of air. I flipped him off, rolled over and crawled through the bushes to the door of the house. I could hear footsteps as he ran away and then a car starting.”

Willis admitted to causing bodily harm to the woman but denied trying to sexually assault her. He was still convicted of both and is awaiting sentencing. Meanwhile, the woman was given £500 as a token of gratitude for her actions in helping authorities apprehend Willis, who in 2011 committed another serious crime.

“She deserves everyone’s commendation for the way she has dealt with this and she certainly gets the highest commendation from me,” the judge said.

“I am going to ask the High Sheriff to pay her a reward of £500 because I think she has to be singled out in some modest way by the court. Five hundred pounds is a tiny token of the court’s appreciation of what she has done to bring about the apprehension of Mr. Willis. It is just a mark of the court’s gratitude.”

The reward is well deserved for the woman, and we commend her for her bravery. We have seen plenty examples of these types of stories and they never get old. The thing is usually they don’t involve women standing up to men and subduing them, which makes this story and this other one we shared in the past so awesome.

H/T Bloody Elbow
Image via Gracie Academy/YouTube