A Fugitive in France May Face the End of His Flight

Nov. 28, 2006 — -- When Nancy Horn was raped 29 years ago, gasoline cost 64 cents a gallon and a movie ticket a little more than $2.

Since then, a lot has changed, but one thing has stayed the same: Horn is still fighting for justice, waiting for her attacker to be punished.

That accused attacker, Jean Paul Ayers, was found guilty in a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, courtroom of raping Horn in 1978.

Once released on bond, Ayers took advantage of a legal birthright and fled to France, a country which does not extradite its citizens to face prosecution for crimes committed abroad.

Ayers was protected under France's laws because his mother is French and he holds dual citizenship from both the United States and France.

In France, Ayers set up a comfortable new life under an assumed name, started a family, and took on a succession of corporate jobs.

Today, Horn has her day in court -- just not in the court or country she expected. Nearly 4,000 miles from home, Horn will testify in a courthouse near Paris.

After several failed attempts at extradition, at least $50,000 of taxpayer money in court costs, and a ruling from the French Supreme Court, a French investigating judge will consider American testimony and decide whether Ayers should face trial in France.

A Criminal Convicted, but a Crime Unpunished

It was December 1977, and Horn was a young flight attendant unloading Christmas presents from her car, holding open the door to her apartment.

A man sneaked into the unlocked home, she says, hiding until he had a chance to attack her with a screwdriver and violently rape her.

In a 1996 interview, Horn described that night to ABC News.

"I walked in. I put my things down on the coach, turned around to get my mail," she said.

Next thing she knew, Horn said, she was being attacked.

"It was dark. And there he was to knock her down, attack her, threaten her life with a screwdriver to her throat and ripped her clothes off her and rape her," said Jim Burger, a detective with the Fairview Police Department in Ohio who investigated the incident.

Horn feared for her life.

"I kept thinking he was going to do something, you know, put the screwdriver in my eye," she said. "You just think of the most horrible things that he could have done."

Today isn't the first time Horn has told her story in court.

In 1978, she testified before an Ohio judge and jury that convicted Ayers and sentenced him to up to 25 years in prison. When Ayers left the United States, Horn pursued him across the globe. She tracked him to France, and nearly led police to him in England.

All the while, Horn's search for justice was not hers alone. A team of prosecutors, detectives and FBI agents had been tracking Ayers in an investigation overseen by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason.

Catching Ayers, Mason says, is a matter of principle and law enforcement.

"I think it's important people understand that they can commit crimes and run as far as they want, but the long arm of the law will catch up to them one day," Mason told ABC News. "This [case] is the perfect example."

Even with the social justice message in mind, Mason stresses that the case is about one woman's personal, agonizing experience.

It is about Horn.

"This is important to the victim. She has gone through many, many trials and many hearings, and really never had any justice," Mason said. "I think it's going to be very rehabilitating for her to finally confront her defendant in a courtroom and get justice."

Horn thinks it is in the interest of the French to finally prosecute her attacker.

After all, a convicted rapist has been living freely among them for years, making a place for himself in French suburban life.

"How could they let him be free? Wouldn't they care about the women in their country?" Horn said.

Will a Convict Walk Away Again?

In court, the French judge will read the transcript of Ayers' trial in the United States, listen to the testimony of an American prosecutor and Horn, and then decide whether the case will move forward. Ohio prosecutors are optimistic.

"The evidence is very strong," Mason said. "We had a conviction here. Obviously 29 years later who knows what will happen? But I still feel that we have very good evidence to put forward. … [Nancy Horn was] a very strong and good witness."

Much of it rests on how strong and good Horn can be in court, so many years after her attack.

It could be her last shot at punishing the one man she believes should have never walked free.