WELSH SINGER DUFFY has shared her of account of being drugged, raped and held captive for weeks to help others “who have suffered the same”.

The Grammy winner, who in 2011 said she was “taking a break” from the public spotlight, revealed last month that she had been raped and drugged and held captive over some days in a post on her verified Instagram page.

In a recent post, the singer said that she was drugged at a restaurant on her birthday before being held captive in her own home and taken to a foreign country.

Duffy, whose full name is Aimee Duffy, said by not sharing her story she was “allowing the rape to become a companion” and she no longer wanted to feel that intimacy with it, “a decade of that intimacy has been destructive”.

“I had to set myself free. I have been hurt and it would have been dangerous to talk from that hurt place in the past, prior to feeling ready.”

She wrote: “It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country. I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a travelling vehicle.

“I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me. I remember the pain and trying to stay conscious in the room after it happened. I was stuck with him for another day, he didn’t look at me, I was to walk behind him, I was somewhat conscious and withdrawn. I could have been disposed of by him.

“I do not know how I had the strength to endure those days, I did feel the presence of something that helped me stay alive.”

She added that the perpetrator made “veiled confessions of wanting to kill me”.

“With what little strength I had, my instinct was to then run, to run and find somewhere to live that he could not find.”

Duffy said she was sharing her ordeal because “we are living in a hurting world”.

She added: “I hope it comforts you to feel less ashamed if you feel alone.

“I am no longer ashamed that something deeply hurt me, anymore. I believe that if you speak from the heart within you, the heart within others will answer.

“As dark as my story is, I do speak from my heart, for my life, and for the life of others, whom have suffered the same.”

Duffy said that she initially feared going to the police, but eventually told a female officer what happened after someone threatened to “out her story”.

Duffy added that she was at “high risk of suicide” following the ordeal and has spent “almost 10 years completely alone”. But she said she now feels she can “leave this decade behind” and thanked her psychologist for helping her through the trauma.

She said she hopes to release “a body of work some day”, but added: “I very much doubt I will ever be the person people once knew.”

Duffy last released an album in 2010 with Endlessly.

“I can now leave this decade behind. Where the past belongs. Hopefully no more ‘what happened to Duffy questions’, now you know … and I am free.”

- With reporting from PA

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence you can contact the DRCC’s National 24-Hour Helpline on 1800 778 888. More support information is available here.