Waiting in Silence Speed up justice and let survivors speak

A young woman from northwest England, who was sexually assaulted when she was 14, is calling for changes to the criminal justice system so that survivors do not suffer long waiting times and can deal with the trauma by talking about what happened.

Now 15, 'Clare' waited 19 months for the police to complete their investigation and has been told not to talk about the details of her attack with anyone, including psychologists, to avoid the risk of ‘jeopardising’ the case.

Clare says that, although she understood the reasons to begin with, she began to feel very lonely and ‘like I had done something wrong’.

She feels her teenage years have been ‘put on hold'. She had to leave school, her education has suffered, and she has not been able to deal with feelings of being scared and worried.

Independent Sexual Violence Advisor, Yasmin Lees, says Clare’s experience is typical for all survivors of sexual assault.

She says the Ministry of Justice reports a median waiting time from the start of a case to conviction of two-and-a-half years.

Yasmin blames the delays on lack of funding, too few dedicated staff, a backlog caused by COVID … but also believes ‘to be honest it just feels a little bit like serious sexual violence cases are just not a priority.’

She says that the police and counsellors advise against discussing the details of an assault because defence lawyers can claim a survivor has ‘rehearsed’ their evidence, or that it has been ‘contaminated’ by a therapist’s thoughts.

Yasmin says the defence has access to counselling notes … which are ‘used against the survivor, basically’.

Clare says it felt like her case wasn't important. ‘I feel like me, and other people that have been through the same situation, have been treated unfairly’

‘The fact that I couldn’t speak about it either felt like my feelings were being invalidated.’

She wants ‘the delays, and the times, to be quicker … but if they are going to take time, for there to be help out there for the victims.’