Cricket: Woman raped by Australian cricketer Alex Hepburn speaks out

Alex Hepburn's victim has broken her silence. Photo / Getty

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

The woman raped by Australian cricketer Alex Hepburn has broken her silence for the first time.

Hepburn was last month sentenced to five years in jail for oral rape in an attack which the Sun reports sparked a medical condition in his 23-year-old victim.

The attack was part of shocking "sex conquest" game set up on messaging service WhatsApp.

During an emotional interview on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program, the woman said it was "humiliating" to find out at the trial that her attack had been part of a sick "game".

"I hate him. I hate all that he is," she said.

"I don't even think he thought it was rape. Like the judge said he trivialised rape. I'm adamant that he thought I'd be grateful for this.

"He will have no idea the effect it has had on me."

The victim recalled how she was hospitalised for a suspected stroke four months after she was attacked and suffered crippling panic attacks and recurring nightmares.

Doctors told her she had a stress-induced condition that temporarily paralyses facial muscles called Bell's Palsy.

Cricketer Alex Hepburn and his girlfriend leave Worcester Crown Court. Photo / Getty

"They said after everything I'd been through my body was shutting down.

"As the day went on my eye drooped and the side of my face froze. It took months to go back to normal.

"I had to drink through a straw. It stopped me working. I didn't want to leave home."

Worcester Crown Court heard before the attack, Hepburn and other players had set up the WhatsApp group called 'Stat Chat'.

Members would reveal details of all their sexual encounters with girls known as "freshies or re heats" and rate them based on their performances in bed.

In the group would shamelessly joke about "dragging the birds back" and "raping them" and bragged about getting tested for STIs in the summer.

Judge Tim Tindal told Hepbrun he had treated his victim "like a piece of meat" and the "game" on WhatsApp showed his "foul sexism" and "demeaned women and trivialised rape".

Hepburn was jailed at the retrial, but is now appealing his conviction.