Florenza with Words to Ponder RadioShow featuring Audrey Mabrey

Audrey Mabrey was 26 when she was struck four times with a hammer, covered in gasoline and set on fire by her husband.

She survived the brutal attack, which prosecutors called a “monstrous and unimaginable crime”, and woke up from a coma six weeks later with burns to 80 percent of her body.

Doctors at the Florida hospital where she was first treated carried out seven separate operations to save her life, leaving her with a medical bill of more than $100,000.

“The first time I saw myself I thought I looked like Freddie Kruger, like a monster from a horror film,” says Mabrey. 

Her former husband, Christopher Hanney, was jailed for life in 2012 for the premeditated attack he inflicted on her in November 2009.

The pair had separated a few months previously and Mabrey had moved out with their two children. She stopped off at the house they used to share in between work and attending a class at a nearby community college, believing Hanney was out at jury duty.

She had a drink in the flat and went for a jog – but when she returned, he was waiting for her inside, with a butcher’s knife in his hands and a “crazed” look in his eyes.

He pushed her into the garage, where he had placed a blanket on the floor, tried to rape her and then hit her in the head four times with a hammer.

“I started praying. I didn't see a way out of there – he was 5ft 11 and a retired NYC detective. For me that was it, my life was over,” she says.

Hanney lit a candle, doused her in gasoline, and threw it at her. She went up in flames as soon as it hit the fumes but managed to escape through the garage door where her neighbor helped to put her out and called an ambulance.