Beauty student puts on brave face after being beaten to pulp by her boxer boyfriend

A beauty student who was so badly battered by her boyfriend that medics couldn't tell what sex she was has spoken for the first about the attack.

Tirion Lewis was left in a coma for a month - and has spent 18 months trying to recover from the brutal attack by 6ft 2in bareknuckle fighter Wayne Fox.

The 20-year-old - who was 19 at the time of the attack - was yesterday in a specialist brain clinic where trauma specialists are still trying to help her get back to a normal life.

Recovering: Tirion Lewis's physical scars have healed - although the university student is still undergoing treatment after suffering post traumatic stress disorder, memory loss and epilepsy

Horrific attack: Tirion was 19 when she was savagely beaten after being kidnapped and attacked by boyfriend Wayne Fox

University student Tirion said she does not remember the horrific beating by the thug.

She said: 'It's still unbelievable what has happened to me. I'm finding it very difficult for it to sink into my head.

'I still cannot believe that Wayne did this to me. Nothing will be enough for what he has put me through and for what he has done to my family.

'I remember nothing about the attack. I had only been seeing him for three months and he had no reason to do what he did.

'All I can think is that he was jealous that I was out with one of my friends and not him.'

Tirion was kidnapped by paranoid schizophrenic Fox as she sat in a car listening to music with her best friend Miriam Lewis.

He punched her 'time after time' until she sunk into a coma in the motiveless attack in woodland.

She recovered from her wounds - but suffers from brain injuries which leave her forgetting things within hours of them happening.

She also struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy and short-term memory problems.

She said: 'I am taking it one step at a time. We have got a long way to go. My memory is terrible. It's frustrating, but I am now getting one-to-one care.

'It's just taking a long time.'

She is at the Oliver Zangwill Centre in Cambridgeshire, where Britain's leading brain trauma specialists are hoping they can help her find answers.

Tirion was listening to music with a friend in her Ford Ka outside her family home when Fox, 23, stormed up to the car.

A court heard the burly bareknuckle fighter began talking 'nonsense' then said: 'Why are you doing this to me?.'

The boxer smashed his bare fist through the window before driving terrified Tirion and her friend Miriam Evans, 19, to forestry for the brutal attack.

Brave Miriam was also beaten - but managed to flee to raise the alarm to save her friend's life. Tirion yesterday paid tribute to her.

She said: 'I'm still really close to Miriam. If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't be alive. She's a legend.'

Miriam said Tirion, her best friend since childhood, was unconscious on the floor and could not talk.

She said: 'It was really hard leaving her but I had to go to get help as I was the only one conscious.

'But I wanted to make sure Wayne had really gone - I thought he might come back and finish her off.'

Fox later told psychiatrists: 'The devil was telling me over and over to hurt my girlfriend.'

Fox, of Aberystwyth, West Wales, faces being jailed for grievous bodily harm with intent, kidnap, actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm and dangerous driving.

Sentence was adjourned by Judge John Diehl and Fox was remanded in custody until next week at Swansea Crown Court.

Tirion's dad Dilwyn Lewis said the events of that September night in 2009 will stay in his mind forever.

He said: 'It was the worst day of my life. When someone can't recognise their own daughter, well, it is very difficult to come to terms with that kind of situation.'

Since the attack, Tirion has had treatment for a variety of injuries including a fractured pelvis and damage to her spleen and kidneys.

She has had skin grafts, had her teeth done and had scar tissue removed from her lips.

Mr Lewis, a property developer, said doctors have described her recovery as 'miraculous'.

He said: 'At the moment, we are coming on well, but we have all had enough. It's all about time now.

'She's come such a long way and is getting better gradually. What we have got to remember is that she was so close to death, so her recovery is miraculous.

'The progress that's been made on her appearance since the attack is hard to believe.'

Thug: Bare-knuckle fighter Wayne Fox, right, kidnapped Tirion, far left, and Miriam Evans. Tirion's friend raised the alarm after the attack