THE story of a Bolton woman's remarkable strength and courage is the subject of tonight's BBC Crimewatch programme. Early one morning in February 1992, Merlyn Nuttall was on her way to work when a man stopped her on a busy Brixton street.

Threatening her with a knife, she was forced into a stinking room in an empty house, sexually assaulted, garrotted with cheese wire, hacked with a broken bottle and left, naked and bleeding, to burn alive.

Amazingly Merlyn, who lived in Bolton throughout her childhood, survived what was one of the most brutal attacks on a woman this country has ever seen.

The 34-year-old tells her story through her book "It Could Have Been You"* and she has just been chosen as winner of the Cosmopolitan/House of Fraser Woman of Achievement Award.

Her happy childhood was spent in Astley Bridge, she attended Holy Infants School and Thornleigh College, and she excelled at sport playing rounders, netball and tennis at competitive level and representing Greater Manchester at badmington.

Tonight's Crimewatch at 10.20pm is screening a special 50 minute documentary on Merlyn's attack revealing how this remarkable woman has rebuilt her life.

The programme initially highlighted her horrific ordeal just weeks after the attack happened, resulting in her assailant's girlfriend contacting the police.

Merlyn says: "In the March after the attack, Crimewatch had agreed, after a degree of coercion form the Brixton Press Office, to run a feature on the attack.

"This was brilliant news as I knew the programme always got results and it wasn't its usual policy to run a piece so soon after the incident had happened.

"And it did work. My attacker and his girlfriend were watching the programme in their flat in Streatham Hill.

"Afterwards he took an overdose, convincing his girlfriend that something was very wrong. She basically put two and two together and went to the police."

Merlyn, who now runs a successful dress agency in London, gave up her anonymity after the incident to help with the police investigation.

She says she agreed to tonight's Crimewatch documentary because she feels many people think when an attacker is arrested, brought to trial and sentenced, that's the end of the story.

"But," she says, "it is definitely not. The victim's real battle begins afterwards.

"I was faced with some pretty surprising areas of resistance, including a refusal by the NHS to pay for plastic surgery to scars on my neck, and a complex and sometimes indifferent system.

"And if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me 'it's all over now...just get on with your life', I'd be a very rich woman indeed.

"My life is certainly not the same, how can it be. My outlook is different, I see people and situations in a different light.

"I thought I was streetwise before the attack, but now I don't think you can ever be completely confident of that.

"I hope tonight's Crimewatch gets an important message across - people must go to the police if they feel they have any information that may lead to pinning down an attacker or culprit.

"No matter how seemingly useless a detail may look, they mustn't hold back, give as much information as quickly as possible."

Merlyn still lives in London and, she says she is now happier than she has been for many years.

In her book, she says: "I feel confident, fulfilled and loved and, despite what I've been through, I wouldn't swop places with anyone in the world." * "It Could Have Been You" is published in paperback by Virago at £5.99. Merlyn will be back in Bolton, signing copies, on Saturday, June 6 at Waterstones in Deansgate from 1pm-2pm.

pics

pic one: Merlyn soon after her horrific attack

pic two: Merlyn and her boyfriend, Andrew Bignell, at a book signing in Bolton last year.

pic three: Merlyn Nuttall

ends THE story of a Bolton woman's remarkable strength and courage is the subject of tonight's BBC Crimewatch programme.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.