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The rape victim who drove her sleeping attacker to police has told how she convinced him to let her drive as part of her daring plan to escape and a desire to see him punished.
The woman had been drinking in a bar when she went outside with Vipul Romik Sharma and another man before being abducted and raped in Otahuhu.
At one point she tried to escape but was brought back to the car and threatened with a tyre-lever before both men took turns raping her.
After the attack, in February 2006, Sharma was driving along the Southern Motorway with the woman in the passenger seat when he became sleepy and started weaving across the road.
She talked him into pulling over and allowing her to take the wheel.
"He was falling asleep and [driving] all over the motorway," said the woman. "I don't know why he let me take over. It was a stupid thing for him to do, to let me drive."
Sharma had told her he was taking her home, but she had other ideas.
"He told me he was going to take me home. But I told him he was going to kill me first with his driving."
The terrified woman feared for her life but an escape plan was forming in her mind.
"I knew what I was going to do. I was going to take him somewhere. Initially I was going to go home but then I looked at the time on the clock."
Her flatmate at the time was a "big Islander guy" who would have come out of the house when she pulled up tooting the horn. But she realised he would already have left for work, so she thought of the police.
She took over the driving near Mt Wellington and tried not to think about her attacker as she drove.
"It did cross my mind to use the tyre-lever on him or open the door and push him out - but then all that driving would have been for nothing.
"But I didn't think of running. I had him. I couldn't give him the chance to get away. I never thought it was clever or brave. You just do what you have to do."
The drive to Auckland Central police station went without incident.
"He was sleeping like a baby, snoring a little bit. He didn't think I was going to take him to the cop shop. But he willingly let me [drive]."
As they got closer, he started to mumble that he was sorry. But when he realised where they were, he said: "I'm really sorry, please, I don't want to go to jail."
Despite the horror she had endured she allowed herself a moment of satisfaction. "It was a good moment to see his face. He kept saying sorry."
She turned to him and said: "You will be sorry - just wait."
"I thought, 'I hope you enjoy your jail food'."
When she pulled up outside the police station she saw off-duty officers walking out of the building.
The police asked her what was going on and seemed shocked when she told them. She was scared her attacker was going to get away.
"They were really bewildered ... They told me to stay in the car."
Sharma tried getting out of the car but the officers stopped him and then sat him on the ground.
Police praised the woman for staying calm and having the sense to drive to the police when most people would want to run. She says she was happy to see Sharma off the streets.
"I'm just happy to be alive. I think it's the same for everyone this happens to. If you're in this situation you just do what you can. No one expects to get the chance I did. I'm proud we got him and he can't do this to anyone else.
"No one has any right to do that to anyone else and walk free."
She hadn't been looking forward to this week's trial - she has been seeing a counsellor since the attack - but found the experience "liberating".
She was uncomfortable seeing Sharma in court but said she felt safe giving her evidence. "I looked at him two or three times. I think he mouthed the word 'bitch' at me but I don't care."
He claimed in court that she asked him to have sex so they both could escape the other man.
"It was worse than pathetic. It was despicable. If I was in that situation I would do anything to help someone. I could have understood if someone had a gun to his baby's head in front of him but there wasn't."
Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two counts of sexual violation by rape. He is in custody and will be sentenced in January.
The other man, Sukhvinder Singh, pleaded guilty to abduction and rape charges soon after his arrest and has been sentenced to jail.
