A BEAUTIFUL and bubbly child, Sian Raymond is as inquisitive as any seven-year-old youngster.

But it's the questions about her "missing" father which leave mum Joanne filled with dread.

Sian hasn't seen her dad for three years.

And, one day, Joanne knows she will have to tell her beloved daughter the awful truth about him.

One day this bright little girl will have to face the full extent of what daddy did to mummy one night in a terrible fit of rage.

While she was sleeping, Peter Coulthard subjected mum Joanne to an horrific four-hour attack in which she was tied up, raped and viciously assaulted.

Dabbing her eyes with a tissue as she remembers the shocking attack as if it were yesterday, Joanne - who courageously waived her right to anonymity - revealed how evil Coulthard slashed her face with a Stanley knife, poured boiling cooking oil over her neck and legs, and threw bleach in her face.

The awful events happened three years ago but every day when she looks in the mirror and sees the now fading scars, Joanne is reminded of the once kind, doting dad who turned into a monster overnight.

Sitting in the lounge of her small Maesteg semi, adorned with lovely photos of her bubbly daughter, Joanne sighs as she wonders what the future will bring.

She is trying to get on with her life as a single mum but as her daughter grows up she knows she will be faced with a barrage of questions from daddy's little girl.

"I don't really know what I'll say to her," she says. "She knows that daddy has gone away because he was bad to mummy but she was only three at the time of the attack and she's bound to ask more questions as she is growing up.

"They were very close. He was a brilliant dad, really hands-on. He was fantastic with her, he used to change nappies, help her go to sleep and it was him that picked her name.

"She occasionally asks about him, or says something about daddy but she hasn't seen him since the attack. As far as I'm concerned he gave up any right to see her when he tried to kill me."

The fact that Coulthard was such a loving dad and boyfriend made the attack even more shocking for Joanne.

The couple, who had met in a Cardiff nightclub five years before, had just split up and were amicably sharing their house until he found somewhere new to go.

Joanne, 28, said: "I just realised I didn't love him. I don't think I ever had. I had got pregnant almost as soon as we met and though I have no regrets now, I didn't want a baby at the time.

"But Peter was over the moon and I thought he was a decent bloke so we stayed together. But there was no sex after the baby was born, I ended up sleeping in with her and I just knew he wasn't really the one for me."

Joanne admits she started getting friendly with another man and realised there was no point staying with a man she didn't love.

"He seemed fine about things. He said he'd need some time to find a flat and, though it was awkward, we seemed to be getting on OK for Sian's sake."

But, one night, without Joanne realising, Coulthard overheard her on the baby monitor telling a friend about new man Tommy. And the next night he flipped.

Joanne, her blue eyes flashing with anger, said: "It was a normal night. I was watching TV in Sian's room and must have fallen asleep when Peter told me I had an urgent phone call from one of my friends who was pregnant.

"I didn't think anything of it because she'd been having a few problems and I thought she might have some news."

But when she went downstairs, she was confronted with a torture chamber that Coulthard had calmly prepared just moments before.

"I remember he'd put the phone on the chair and as I went to pick it up, he punched me in the face. The next thing I knew he had me on the floor and was trying to strangle me. He told me he knew about Tommy and that he was going to make me pay.

"He put his hand over my mouth and made me walk into the dining room. I was terrified, especially when I saw everything there.

"There were weights, dumbbells, a hammer, a Stanley knife, a rope and a bucket.

"All the baby's toys had been pushed into the corner and I remember just bursting into tears. I was terrified for myself but also for Sian who was asleep upstairs.

"Peter said he wanted to know everything but I told him nothing. Then he tied me up and raped me. After that, I remember him picking up the Stanley knife and he had a terrible, evil look in his eyes."

Fingering the scars on her left cheek, Joanne continued: "He started slowly slashing my face, he did it four times. Then he cut me four times on my arms. In between, he would stop and have a cigarette, stubbing it out on my body.

"I was in agony by now but I don't remember crying. I think I was just in total shock. I thought he was going to kill me."

Joanne was also terrified for her daughter, who kept waking up and calling for her. But it was Coulthard who would go and calm her down, taking the knife he had slashed Joanne's face with.

"I was so frightened he was going to hurt her, especially because he took the knife with him. But, each time, he would come back down and say she was OK.

"When he came back down, he put goggles over my eyes and said he was going to hurt me, but still wanted me to be able to see Sian

"I could smell cooking oil burning on the stove and I knew he must have been planning to burn me. He was so evil, he asked me to choose where I wanted him to throw it. He said I could choose my face, my arms or my legs. I told him I wouldn't choose but he forced me and so I told him to throw it on my legs. That way, I could at least hide the burns from people."

But Coulthard's evil attack wasn't over. As Joanne lay bleeding, burning and in terrible pain, he threw a cup of bleach over her face.

Wincing, she says:"I can't really remember the pain. I just remember my whole face dripping and I didn't know if it was blood, bleach, skin or oil. By then, I was convinced that I would die."

But, after a four-hour attack, retail assistant Coulthard calmly told Joanne, still tied up, bleeding and shivering on the floor, that he was going to write his confession.

Lighting another cigarette, the 42-year-old lay on the lounge floor and began writing a letter.

Joanne begged him to let her go, she knew she needed medical help and was still terrified for her innocent little girl upstairs.

"He told me he would do it when he was ready and, after what seemed like hours, he phoned for an ambulance and waited outside for the police to come."

The attack left Joanne so physically scarred that she needed plastic surgery and 70 stitches.

She and Sian moved in with her parents nearby and she vowed she'd never go near her one-time boyfriend again.

Coulthard, 42, pleaded guilty to rape, GBH with intent and wounding in July 2002. He was sentenced to life at Cardiff Crown Court.

But, although he was safely behind bars, Joanne wanted answers. She wanted to know why he had tried to murder the mother of his child.

After he wrote to her to say he was sorry and that he'd gone on a hunger strike to punish himself for what he had done, she took the brave decision to confront him in prison.

"My parents didn't want me to go and see him and I think most people thought I should forget it, but I just felt like I needed answers, like I couldn't really move on until he'd told me why.

"I felt sick with fear before the visit, but I knew it was something I had to do. I hadn't been to any of the court case so I hadn't actually seen him since that April 4th night."

But Joanne's fear quickly turned to pity when she saw the one-time "lump of a man" looking so thin and old.

"He looked like he'd aged and seemed very pathetic, unable to look me in the eye. I shouted at him, but all he ever said was that it was because of Tommy. I never really got the answers I wanted."

Joanne went to see Coulthard twice after that initial visit.

"The second time I remember passing him a cup of coffee and it was only afterwards that I realised he could have thrown it back in my face. After a third visit, I felt enough was enough. I didn't want him to think he stood any chance of getting back with me, or of me forgiving him. I told him I wouldn't be coming again and that he would never see myself or Sian again."

But Joanne does worry about the future - and whether her daughter will one day want to meet the man who emotionally and physically scarred her mum for life.

She said: "There's no way he's ever seeing her. I don't ever want him to see her. As far as I'm concerned he gave up any right to be her dad, the minute he laid a finger on me.

"I'm hoping when she is old enough to learn exactly what he did to me, she'll never want to meet him. However much I hate him, I do feel sorry because they were very close. That's why it's so difficult to understand what he did. He didn't just lose his freedom, he lost his little girl too."

Some names have been changed

Savage sadist's terrible revenge

PETER Coulthard was branded a savage sadist when he was jailed for life at Cardiff Crown Court.

Judge John Griffiths Williams QC told him: "The facts reveal a sadistic savagery the like of which courts rarely encounter.

"This was a four-hour terrifying ordeal, almost unparalleled in its cold-blooded savagery. You must be considered a grave and immediate danger to the public for the foreseeable future."

Coulthard subjected Joanne Raymond to a terrifying attack - hours after their four-year relationship finished - after discovering she was seeing another man, the court heard.

He found out she had a new lover after over-hearing a conversation on a baby-listening monitor. He then staged four hours of torture - including pouring hot oil on her legs and bleach on her face - leaving her scarred for life.

Prosecutor Sue Ferrier said: "He became suspicious about her wishing to end their relationship.

"A few days before the attack he used a baby listening device to eavesdrop into a conversation between his girlfriend and her cousin. She was discussing a new relationship. It was this discovery that caused him to plan and execute a most chilling and sadistic violent attack."

Coulthard drew up a shopping list of torture items - including craft knives, white spirit and cooking oil.

He waited until after she had gone to bed in their home Maesteg, South Wales, before he woke her up telling her she had a phone call.

He punched her in the face and dragged her onto the floor shouting: "I know everything." He also threatened to murder the couple's young daughter.

Mrs Ferrier said: "He used rope to tie her hands and ankles and used a knife to cut her clothes off. He raped her then he placed a heated metal knife on her forearm then stood above her and tipped hot oil over her, burning her legs."

Cardiff Crown Court heard he placed swimming goggles over her eyes "so she could still see her little girl".

He then threw more oil over her shoulder, neck and back before throwing a mug of bleach into her face. He taunted her showing her a mirror saying: "Look at what I've done."

Coulthard then made a 999 call and told the operator he had practically killed his girlfriend, saying: "I have done everything I liked. I know it's a shocking thing isn't it?"