Sex Crimes

Victim in Jesse Matthew attack testifies about effect assault had on her life

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Fairfax County, Va., Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh, center, talks to reporters in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, June 18, 2015, after a hearing in which the victim of a 2005 sexual assault gave victim-pact testimony that will be used at the sentencing of Jesse Matthew, 33, of Charlottesville, Va. Matthew is charged in an unrelated case with the abduction and killing of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham. Morrogh is joined by Gil Harrington, mother of slain student Morgan Harrington, whose case has been linked by DNA evidence to the 2005 attack in Fairfax, left, and Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Casey Lingan. (AP Photo/Matt Barakat) (The Associated Press)

Fairfax County, Va., Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh, left, speaks to Gil Harrington, mother of slain student Morgan Harrington, after a news conference at the Fairfax County courthouse in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, June 18, 2015, following a victim-impact hearing in a September 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax. The man convicted in the 2005 cases, Jesse Matthew, 33, of Charlottesville, has been linked by DNA evidence to Harrington's case as well as that of slain student Hannah Graham. (AP Photo/Matt Barakat) (The Associated Press)

A woman who was sexually assaulted by Jesse Matthew nearly a decade before he was charged with abducting and killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham says that testifying about her ordeal forced her to relive an experience she had put into emotional "cold storage."

She testified Thursday in Fairfax County about the effect the attack had on her life.

Last week, Matthew was convicted of attempted murder and other charges related to the 2005 attack. After three days of trial testimony, Matthew entered an Alford plea. That means he acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict but does not admit guilt.

Her testimony is supposed to help the judge determine an appropriate punishment.

Matthew will be sentenced in October and faces life in prison.