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Last Updated: Monday, 25 February 2008, 13:50 GMT
Girl's desperate call to mother
Kate Sheedy in her prom dress
Ms Sheedy's mother was told by doctors her daughter could die

Kate Sheedy was on her way home from a party celebrating her last day of school when she was run over twice by Levi Bellfield and left for dead.

Just months after the May 2004 attack, the then 18-year-old spoke to BBC News reporter Alison Freeman about her ordeal.

When she saw Levi Bellfield's car rev its engine and speed straight towards her, teenager Kate Sheedy tried desperately to run away.

She was not fast enough. As the car hit her, knocking her face-down into the road, the wheels of the car ran over her torso.

Bellfield, who was behind the wheel, then reversed and drove over her again.

"When the car hit me I felt disbelief," Ms Sheedy said in a BBC interview in August 2004.

"I didn't scream or make a sound.

"I just felt crushed. I stood up but fell straight back down again.

"I thought, 'I've got to go home, I'm very badly hurt', and started crawling."

Mummy, I've been run over... if they don't get here soon I'm going to die
Kate Sheedy

The injuries Ms Sheedy suffered in the attack in Islesworth, west London, were horrific.

Her back was torn open, her liver was ruptured, one of her lungs had collapsed and the other was punctured.

She also suffered a broken collarbone and broken ribs.

Despite her injuries, the 18-year-old stayed conscious throughout the ordeal and managed to crawl several metres before making a desperate phone call to her mother Eileen.

During Bellfield's trial, the Old Bailey heard how Ms Sheedy had rung her mother at home, saying "Mummy, I've been run over, I'm in our road."

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Sheedy recounted hearing her daughter sounding "panicky" on the other end of the phone.

She said: "Kate said 'if they don't get here soon I'm going to die'."

As she was transferred to the intensive care unit of Kings College Hospital, Ms Sheedy's mother was told to prepare herself for the possible death of her daughter.

Months after the attack, Ms Sheedy was told she would make a full recovery, but her life had already been changed forever.

Unable to sit her A-Levels with her schoolmates, her exam board agreed to grade her on the work she had already completed.

But plans for university were postponed for a year, as the former head girl of Gumley House Convent School in Isleworth found it difficult to walk far, got tired easily and said she was scared to go out alone at night.

She remained mystified by what could have motivated her attacker.

She said: "I think it was just my misfortune to be there at that time, but I can't comprehend the fact that another human being could do that for no particular reason."

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