Teacher who broke back trying to escape rapist 'paralysed from waist down'
A New York teacher who broke her back when she plummeted down a cliff trying to escape a sexual predator is partially paralysed from the waist down, a relative said.
Hannah Gavios is currently undergoing treatment for a severe spinal injury at Bangkok Hospital in Phuket after she fell 45 metres near the resort town of Krabi.
A relative of Ms Gavios told the New York Post that the young woman is partially paralysed from the waist down, but said it is unclear if the damage is permanent.
Local media are reporting Ms Gavios's alleged attacker, Apai Ruengvorn, 28, continued to molest her even when she was laying injured on the ground after the fall.
Ms Gavios, who has been teaching English in Vietnam, said she became lost on Railay Beach on September 1 after heading into a local shop seeking directions.
The 23-year-old said she was told one of the staff members would help show her the way to her accommodation.
Arriving in the town just 16 hours earlier, Ms Gavios said she started to feel uneasy about the man as he led her up a secluded mountain in the dark.
"I didn't get the best feeling about him but I was tired and wanted to get home," she said.
"While we were walking he grabbed me and was holding me down and trying to take off my clothes."
Ms Gavios said she fought back against the man, punching him and biting his ear before he agreed to leave her alone. But when she turned to run back to the beach, the young woman blindly ran off the edge of a cliff into the darkness.
"Before I knew it I was in mid air falling off a cliff. I was honestly thinking I wouldn't survive," she said.
"I was screaming in pain. It was the most painful thing ever ... I felt like a total vegetable. I felt completely vulnerable. I couldn't move anything."
Ms Gavios said as she lay on the ground unable to move, that's when her attacker struck.
Hopeful the man would call for help, he instead scrambled on top of her and sexually molested her.
"He didn't rape me - but he did everything else. I really thought I was going to die," she said.
Ms Gavios was then left to spend the night cold and alone in the bushland before help arrived the following day.
According to Phuket media, the man who led police to Ms Gavios has been charged over the sex attack and was taken to a cell at Krabi Provincial Court, where he is facing up to 10 years in jail.
"Officials received a call reporting that a tourist had been injured after she had fallen down a mountain in the Railay area,” Krabi Tourist Rescue Centre Director Nitiphat Mongkolpradit told The Phuket News.
"Rescue workers were searching for her, but they could not find her, so (the next morning) we when out to search again and discovered her lying in between rocks about 45 metres from the trail at the top of the mountain. She was only 15 metres from the water below,” he said.
Ms Gavios said the ordeal had not put her off continuing to teach in Vietnam, and she was grateful her legs were not broken - as first feared - in the fall.
"I'm taking it one day at a time," she said.
The 23-year-old's parents are travelling from New York to be by her bedside at Bangkok Hospital as she continues her recovery.
