Big Creek, W.Va., is 213 snaking, mountain miles from Roanoke. But the inhumanity of a heinous attack against a young woman there makes things like distance and location insignificant.

The case shocks the sensibilities. A 20-year-old woman is held in a ramshackle shed behind a trailer in the middle of nowhere. She's tortured, sexually assaulted, stabbed, scalded with water, forced to eat dog and rat waste and to drink from a toilet.

We wonder how people could be so depraved to inflict such inhumanity upon another person.

"Everything I read about it, it adds insult on top of insult on top of injury," said Judy Casteele, executive director of Project Horizon. The Lexington organization assists victims of domestic and sexual violence.

Though rape was one aspect of the vicious West Virginia attack, I called Casteele because rape is unique among invasive crimes. It is a crime of violence rooted in control and humiliation.

"There's so much shame attached to a sexual assault," said Casteele, who has been a rape counselor for 20 years. "They blame themselves. 'Maybe I could have prevented it.' "

Occasionally, these horrendous crimes percolate into public awareness. The white college student in Knoxville, Tenn., carjacked, raped and murdered along with her boyfriend by four young black suspects.

Four black teens have been charged with repeatedly raping a Haitian immigrant in West Palm Beach, Fla. Six suspects remain at large in the attack in which the woman was forced to sexually assault her 12-year-old son.

In the West Virginia case, an anonymous caller tipped off authorities that the young black woman was being held. She was rescued Sept. 8.

Last week, a group of black ministers called for the prosecutor to charge the six white suspects with a hate crime.

Let's slow the roll on the emotional bandwagon. We know it was hate, but I agree with the prosecutor's decision to initially pursue kidnapping and other charges, which carry stiffer penalties. Should he decide, he can file hate-crime charges later.

In the face of such appalling cruelty, the West Virginia victim and her mother have demonstrated uncommon courage. They have put a name and a face on survival.

In a move unusual (though not unheard of) in sexual assault cases, Megan Williams, along with her mother, Carmen, invited reporters into her hospital room so the public can hear what Megan endured.

"It amazes me and surprises me," said Casteele, who in two decades of rape counseling has seen only two victims willing to be identified. "I'm not sure I can be that brave. For many people, it's part of the healing process. "

If the suspects sitting in jail cells are the faces of inhumanity, Megan Williams is the face of bravery. In a case of the most incredible degradation imaginable, she is daring to stand tall

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• Posted by Shanna Flowers in State & national issuesState & national issues
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