A 24-year-old office worker was punched nine times in the face and head during a 15-minute attack.

She was returning to a friend's home in Brighton after a party when she spotted a man in the front garden.

She said: "I asked him what he was doing and he just lunged at me and laid into me, hitting me repeatedly in the eye and head."

The attacker pushed her to the ground and she thought he was going to rape her.

She said: "He lay on top of me and put his hand over my mouth and nose. I could hardly breath."

The man said he was not a rapist but he forced her over on to her stomach and, again, she thought she would be raped.

She said: "I was terrified but then I realised he turned me over so I would not see his face as he fled."

The man ran off with £10 from her purse and the victim's friend, who witnessed part of the attack from a window of the house, called the police.

The woman, who wants to be known as Marie, is an Australian living in Cardiff.

She said: "It was horrific but I would like to meet him so I could ask him 'why?'"

The attack happened during the early hours of Sunday morning at the junction of Ditchling Road and Prince's Crescent and police are appealing for witnesses.

A man has been charged.