Justice for Rape Victims Change the law to put rapists away

A young woman from the west of England is calling for changes to the legal system so that rapists are brought to justice, instead of escaping the law - as is currently almost always the case – after her own life was turned upside down by a sexual attack.

19-year-old 'Lucy' was raped by an older neighbour, a family man, when she was 16 years old after being groomed by him from the age of 11.

She says he gave her gifts, including mobile phones and sweets, made ‘weird’ comments about her, and engaged in inappropriate touching. She thought at the time he was simply being a ‘nice neighbour’.

Lucy reported the attack to police, and they interview him, but he denied the rape, and instead admitted to consensual sexual activity.

Lucy says she did not report the rape immediately so there was no physical evidence, and the police took his word over hers … finally delivering a letter saying the case had been dropped.

She says this was devastating, left her feeling distraught and angry, and contemplating suicide.

Jayne Butler, Chief Executive of Rape Crisis, confirms that Lucy’s experience is entirely normal, and the chance of justice is vanishingly small.

‘Around one in five people who experience rape report to the police. So that’s really low to begin with. About one in 100 gets a charge from their rape report to the police. Then even less of them, under half, are actually convicted.’

Jayne says, ‘it’s really, really tough for those rape victims that don’t get justice (…) you feel like, somewhere in that system, they’re saying ‘well, you didn’t tell the truth here’ or what happened wasn’t bad enough for you to get justice, and that’s not OK is it’.

Emily Jacob, a fellow survivor of rape and now a prominent campaigner and mentor, whose alleged rapist also walked free, says of the legal system;

‘I don’t think it is working for rape victims, I think it is working for rapists.’

She says that, whereas another ‘industry’ updates its practices, ‘the legal system is entirely the opposite. The criminal justice system does not know how to handle sexual violence in an appropriate way for what’s happening today’.

'It’s happening too many times.’