The 'Poldark' actress says she is suffering from 'regular panic and anxiety attacks' following the terrifying rape ordeal that happened during a friend's birthday party.

• Aug 19, 2020

AceShowbiz - Actress Ciara Charteris has opened up about her terrifying ordeal of being raped by a close friend five years ago

The "Poldark" star, 25, penned a candid open letter about the alleged incident, on a blog called "I Am Arla", which is a support network and platform for survivors of rape and trauma.

Reflecting on the sexual assault which took place in 2015, during a friend's birthday night out, Ciara explained her attacker was a "close friend" from her youth theatre group who was "slightly older" than her.

"Although I have struggled to say the word rape out loud for a long time, I knew that's what had happened. Despite saying no numerous times, begging him to get off me, trying to physically pull him off, my flight mode was not attuned to protect me from a rapist that had the face of my best friend," she wrote.

"So I just shut my eyes and passed out in terrified defeat. Only waking later to clean myself up and try and find my bottoms."

Ciara said that at the time she decided not to report the incident but confided in her female best friend about what had happened the following morning, claiming she offered her "unwavering support" and the two decided to cut the accused out of their lives.

However, after she observed social media posts featuring the friend she had confided in spending time with the accused, Ciara admitted she began to feel trapped and worried he would go on to assault someone else.

This, she says, caused "regular panic and anxiety attacks... frequently triggering flashbacks to the assault, and resulted in me having to leave my new job" - at which point, in December 2019, a year after departing her hit BBC show, she made a formal police report.

After learning in March (20) the accused would not be charged - a decision that left her "unsurprised" - Ciara, who is now in a relationship with Scottish actor Nick Nunn, decided to publish her blog post in the hope of sharing her voice for the "better of her community."