Rapist cricketer Alex Hepburn left victim's face paralysed

Cricketer Alex Hepburn leaves Worcester Crown Court during his rape trial. Photo / Getty

The woman raped by an Australian cricketer while she slept has told how she suffered facial paralysis after the horrific attack.

Her frozen face was initially feared to be a stroke after ex-Worcestershire player Alex Hepburn raped her as she slept in a teammate's bed, reports the Daily Mail.

The attack was part of "sex conquest" game set up on messaging service WhatsApp and led to the Aussie cricketer being jailed for five years with the judge saying that Hepburn had treated his victim "like a piece of meat" and the "game'" on WhatsApp showed his "foul sexism" and "demeaned women and trivialised rape".

Following the attack the young woman developed Bell's Palsy, a paralysis of the face which is linked to emotional stress.

Saying that she "looked like she had had a stroke", the victim's weight plummeted and she suffered crippling panic attacks and recurring nightmares.

The victim was hospitalised four months after the attack amid fears she had a stroke.
She said: "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."

Cricketer Alex Hepburn leaves Worcester Crown Court during his rape trial. Photo / Getty

Now the victim faces being retraumatised by further court proceedings as Hepburn, 23, prepares to appeal his conviction.

"I had thought this was all going to be over in January...now there's more uncertainty that it isn't the end," she said.

"It was said in court he'd shown remorse. Now he's appealing. It just shows how arrogant he is."