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Jogger fights off rapist by locking him in toilet cubicle

The 36-year-old used recently learnt self defence skills to fight back.
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A jogger in Seattle got a nasty surprise when she went to use a public bathroom this weekend, with a known sex offender launching a terrifying attack on her inside the cubicle.

Kelly Heron, 36, was only a few kilometres into her training run in Golden Gardens park, Seattle, when she stopped to take a bathroom break.

After going to the sink to wash her hands, Kelly describes to ABC how she became aware that “something was wrong.”

Before she knew it, Gary Steiner, a 40-year-old registered sex offender, had started to attack her, pinning her to the ground and hitting her in the face.

But Herron, who had recently received self-defence training, said she kept screaming “not today mother——!” over and over. “It became my battle cry.

“I got into that stall flipped on my back and I tried to kick the door lock shut with my foot,” she explains. “He started beating me in the face with his hand.”

Just as Herron thought she was going to lose consciousness, she said she got a surge of adrenaline and began to hit and punch, using the hard parts of her arms and hands on the soft parts of him, as she’d been taught.

“I reached for the door and was able to get out.”

Outside, a passerby had a carabiner, and they were able to assist with locking Steiner in the bathroom.

Kelly posted an image on her Instagram page showing her injuries from the attack, as well as where it occurred in the popular Seattle park.

Alongside the image she wrote: “My face is stitched, my body is bruised, but my spirit is intact.”

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