Is this the bravest girl in Brighton?

Now she has gone straight to the heart of the legal system again to expose the problems on her city-centre estate.

She helped convict her attacker and has now persuaded a judge to lift an order stopping the Press from revealing her identity in connection with her case.

Katrina believes that by doing so, she can make her home a safer place.

At the age of ten, Katrina braved the intimidating formality of Lewes Crown Court to speak of her ordeal, which happened when she was just nine years old.

A man had tried to abduct her while she was playing with friends just yards from her house.

The strong-minded girl was unflinching in her determination to stop Jeremy Turnbull putting any more girls through the same ordeal.

Now, this courageous schoolgirl feels she has to speak out again.

In the three years since she escaped Turnbull's clutches, the compact Brighton estate where she lives has not improved.

Every day Katrina runs the gauntlet between her home and her school.

She is forced to sidestep dirty needles and broken glass, turn away when vagrants make obscene suggestions, say no when she is offered drink and drugs and always, always stay alert to the danger of potential abductors.

After her ordeal in court, Katrina's identity was protected for life by the man who sat in judgment on her attacker, Judge Richard Brown.

But Katrina feels so strongly about the need to clean up her estate, she wrote to the judge and begged him to let her tell the truth about the Belmont Complex, off New England Street, Brighton.

In her letter, Katrina said she understood why her identity had been protected. She wrote: "Although I was very scared, I knew I had to go to court to make sure everyone else was safe.

"I was happy when he was taken away and I knew he couldn't harm anyone else.

"But since then, the area has got even worse. We can't play safely because of drunks and drug addicts and I am always scared someone could try to take me away again.

"I spoke out in court because I wanted to make things better and now it's time to speak out again but I can't.

"The time is right for me to say what I want to say. Hopefully, it will make me feel better and it will make things better for others."

The judge, who praised Katrina for the clear evidence she gave in the June 1999 trial, replied: "I want to congratulate you on the efforts you are making to help make your area a safer place to live in."

He agreed to lift the gagging order on identifying the 12-year-old.

He told Katrina's mother, Cathy: "You have every reason to be proud of your daughter."

Cathy believes the Belmont Complex is one of the most dangerous areas for children in the city.

Tucked behind London Road, Cathy said it attracted prowlers and vagrants trying to escape police scrutiny.

There is no private play area for the dozens of children who live there. Instead, the children play in the public area where Turnbull targeted Katrina, or dodge parked cars in the hard-surface parking area, which at least has a gate protecting them from the outside world.

In the five years her family has been living there, Cathy has catalogued many incidents.

In March 1997, a young boy was attacked. In April 1997, a knife-wielding man chased 20 children away from the area where they were playing.

In May 1997, a set of gas canisters were dumped there and someone attempted to explode them. The list goes on.

Cathy said: "We moved here from Whitehawk because we wanted to get away from the drugs. I have four children and I was worried about my older boys.

"When we first moved here, I thought it was great. It's right in the middle of town, near the shops, near to school, a busy area. Perfect.

"Within a few weeks we had faced some nasty situations. I didn't feel safe walking around at night.

"Moulsecoomb and Whitehawk have been notorious for a long time. The lack of community facilities there used to cause problems because there were so many children, many with parents on a low income, with nothing to do.

"Then a child in Whitehawk was abducted. Now there are CCTV cameras and extra police officers there and the situation is improving.

"In this area, nothing has been done since Jeremy Turnbull tried to take Katrina away.

"We have drunks offering our children drink. Our children are watching junkies put needles in their arms. It's not safe.

"In Whitehawk, people have a caring, united front. There is a real community. But there are only 40 or so homes here. There's only so much we can do."

Katrina still has nightmares about the day Turnbull tried to snatch her. She was skating with a friend when he tried to take her to The Level. When she pulled away from him, he chased the pair up the street.

She said: "I'm still a little bit scared to go out round the houses. There's still people there trying to give us some of the stuff they take or trying to give us drinks.

"There have been other times when people have come there and tried to take children away. Sometimes they don't say anything because they are scared. But they should come forward.

"It made me feel better to see him punished. I'm glad he's in a secure unit, otherwise he could do it to another little girl."

Cathy said her daughter tried to be strong but the incident still haunted her.

She said: "When she first came in, Katrina was in a terrible state. Jeremy had been hanging around the kids for weeks, offering them chocolate and sweets.

"I had warned her to watch out for him and told the police about it too.

"Her dad wanted to cop hell out of him but I said, 'Don't lower yourself to that level, you have to rise above it'. My first reaction was to do something to him as well but I wanted him to be caught and punished."

During the next few days, Katrina kept seeing Turnbull outside her school or on the estate. Every time, Cathy would call the police but the prowler would escape. He was caught more than a month after the incident when Cathy herself trailed him up Ditchling Road.

Afterwards, Katrina identified Turnbull in an identity parade before giving video evidence in court.

Cathy said: "It took so long for him to be caught. Then when it went to court a year later, the memories came flooding back.

"When he is released, we won't be told. My daughter could in the street in three weeks' time and this man could approach her again.

"I said, 'When you are older, maybe you will be able to use this experience to do something positive'. I think that's what she is trying to do now.

"There are lots of things that could be done to make the estate safer. If an area of the car park was developed into a playground, the kids would have somewhere to go that was a bit better protected. If they took the benches out of the sandy area behind the houses, no one would want to sit there and get drunk.

"There is an empty old building just off the London Road. It is full of dirty needles and is very dangerous. The kids told us they were using it as a den.

"When we saw it, we told them never to go in there again. But if it could be done up, it would make a great drop-in centre for the kids. I don't understand why this derelict building is just left to rot while our children have nowhere safe to play.

"Katrina knows she can't change everything by herself. But she hopes that by speaking out, she will inspire other people to help her make those changes happen. If anyone can use that terrifying experience to create something positive, she can."

Housing in the Belmont Complex is owned by the Chichester Diocese Housing Association (CDHA).

Gabrielle Sanders, community involvement co-ordinator at CDHA, said: "We are working with the council to change the sandy area opposite St Bartholomew's Church into a safe space.

"The residents told us what they would like to see and together we came up with an idea for a fenced play area for the children. The residents don't want benches because it attracts drunks and they want somewhere safe for their kids to play.

"We worked hard with the council to do everything we had to do as quickly as we could and we are still waiting for the work to start.

"If the residents would like to see a playground in the parking area, we can look at that again. There was a play area there when the houses were first built but we had to remove the equipment because of vandalism."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said work could start on the sandy area in the next two months.

He said: "Work has been delayed by legal problems trying to remove a number of cars. We can't tow them off as it's not a public highway.

"We also hope as street cleaning improves we will be able to do better at keeping things like syringes off the area. People should always report them to us for special collection."

Superintendent Graham Cox, of Brighton Police, said: "I am concerned about people not feeling safe in this area.

"We have been running a Safer Streets initiative addressing the sort of issues Katrina is talking about."

"We do need the community to help us and we need people to tell us about the sort of incidents Katrina and her mum are talking about.

"The local community beat officer is PC Darren Egan and people should feel they can talk to him about these issues."

To contact PC Egan, call 0845 6070999.