Australian doctor Angela Jay was stabbed 11 times and doused in petrol inside her own home by an obsessed stalker she had dated briefly after meeting on Tinder.
Paul Lambert broke into Dr Jay's house in Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid North Coast during the day in November last year, then waited for her to return.
As Dr Jay, 28, walked into her bedroom, Lambert burst out of a walk-in wardrobe and started plunging a large knife into her legs and hips.
"I screamed and he put his hand around my mouth so that I couldn't scream and looked me in the eye with a really intense look and said: 'It's OK, I just want to talk,' " Dr Jay said, recalling the attack in a television interview on Sunday.
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"I just made a run for it and he of course caught me and then I just suddenly saw this knife in his hands," she told Channel Seven's Sunday Night programme.
After Lambert, 38, stabbed Dr Jay, he started pouring petrol over her head "... and my eyes were burning and it got in my mouth, it got in my ears.
"I was just terrified that any second I would go up in flames," she said.
"It wasn't good enough to take my life and take me away from all my friends and family. He had to actually destroy my body as well," she said.
"He wanted me to be ruined for anybody else."
The petrol made it easier for Dr Jay to slip from Lambert's grasp and she was able to escape.
Neighbour Steve Willdernâ, who had heard her screaming, met Dr Jay as she rushed down her driveway. Inside his garage he tended to Dr Jay's wounds while his daughter called police.
Lambert drove off heading north for two hours until police threw spikes in front of his hire car. He was holding a knife as he got out of the car and was shot dead by police.
On her Facebook page, Dr Jay explained she had shared her "darkest moments" with the nation in the hope of raising $100,000 for White Ribbon Australia. She aimed to walk more than 65 kilometres in five days on the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory.
"With most of the stab wounds in my legs and hip, this will be both a physically and mentally challenging event for me," Dr Jay said. She hoped people would see the "true message about the significance of domestic violence".
"Many women are not lucky enough to escape - approximately one woman a week in Australia is killed by a current or ex-partner. As a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology, I have also witnessed the sad truth that rates of domestic violence actually increase during pregnancy."
The attack on Dr Jay happened after she met Lambert, a banker from Kogarah in Sydney's south, on Tinder and the pair dated for six weeks.
Dr Jay began to feel smothered by the intensity of Lambert's attention and decided to bring an end to the relationship.
But Lambert wouldn't accept it was over. He bombarded Dr Jay with calls and texts, threatened to harm himself and created fake profiles on social media.
Dr Jay took out an Apprehended Violence Order against Lambert after he warned her he had keys to her home, and she was "not safe" in the house.
Fairfax Media