Holly's Fight for Justice

Holly's Fight for Justice http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/1998/04/remarkable_01.html?printer_version=1

BY RICK MOFINA
Victim of a serial rapist, the young woman from Red Deer, Alta., determined to bring her attacker to trial HOLLY JILL DESIMONE will never silence the sound of the rapist's zipper opening behind her. "Count backward from ten!" he ordered, forcing her onto her hands and knees against a chair in her apartment in Red Deer, Alta. Photographs of her seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter smiled from across the room as the man assaulted her.

Holly thought of the butcher's knives in her kitchen. Surely he will kill me. This is how I will die, 29 years old, studying to be a nurse, divorced, in the middle of a custody fight for my children.

THREE hours earlier that night of December 14, 1990, the delicious aroma of Iranian baking filled the air as Holly arrived at the home of her friends Albert and Celine Rasai. Holly had helped Albert find work as a hairdresser. Now he introduced her to his brother Ali, a polite, charming newcomer to Canada. Perhaps Holly could help him, too.

Barrel-chested with a thick black moustache, Ali, 37, said he was a former bodyguard to the Shah of Iran and a martial-arts expert. As he eyed the attractive young brunette, he regaled Holly with stories of his life as a globe-trotting refugee from Iran's civil strife. He did not reveal that he was a fugitive from an attempted rape charge in Australia.

When Holly offered to introduce Ali to club managers she knew who might need a bouncer or disc jockey, a grateful Albert insisted they use his car. Christmas lights twinkled in storefronts as Holly drove off with Ali. She took him to several clubs. By then it was late. "I'll just drop myself off at home," she told Ali. "You can come in and call Albert for directions to drive back. Or I can draw a map."

"That would be fine," he said.

Once inside, Rasai's charm evaporated. "You're very pretty," he said, pointing to a photo of Holly, whose slender figure had earned her modelling jobs. Rasai bragged about his martial-arts skills, insisting he demonstrate them. Holly grew uneasy.