Last year I went to the police because I was raped as a 15 year old in 1999. Because he can only be punished by the laws at the time, he cannot be charged with rape because it had to be reported within 12 months, as per the 1956 Sexual Offences Act. If I had been older or younger or a man then he could have been charged with rape.
I am absolutely traumatised by this.
Many of Jimmy Saville’s victims were in this demographic of 13-15 year old girls and I bet he knew full well that if 12 months passed he was home and dry. This is why I call it the Jimmy Saville loophole.
I miraculously got an amendment to the law tabled in the House of Commons in June by Liz Jarvis MP (not my own Labour minister MP who is useless) but they spent more time listening to a Tory whinge about how long it takes to get a shot gun license and they never debated it. I went to the public gallery to watch and my expensive water bottle was stolen when in the care of the Doorkeepers. I had to threaten to sue them to get them to pay me back.
I have written to the Lords who previously talked about this. No response.
I have written to Baroness Casey with my finest fountain pen to ask that this loophole is closed and had no reply. She did the grooming gang review this year that recommended changes to the law to protect teenage girls. She didn’t even include in her report that pre 2004 rapes have this procedural limitation.
I got a reply from Sarah Sackman MP, the Minister in charge. She called what happened as having ‘factual consent’ which as a woman I find a disgusting way to refer to rape.
The Guardian have previously written an article about it. I even wrote to the Daily Mail for help and Nigel Farage because apparently it’s the ECHR which stops the law from being changed to get my justice.
I even wrote to the King, whose secretary did reply but it was useless.
Let’s not even get started on the fact he can’t even be sued now for his assault, like almost every other assault can be sued in civil courts. So if he inherits lots of money from his parents I cannot get it off him.
I am at a complete and utter loss at what to do. There will be thousands of 13-15 year old girls raped between 1956 and 2004 when the new law came into effect, maybe even someone else reading this.
The only people I’ve found who actually care are the Liberal Democrats.
In addition to this, because the man was my brother, my parents and other brother have taken his side, despite admitting that they know I’m telling the truth. I have no blood family now other than my beautiful baby daughter.
I can’t speak to any of the charities that support survivors of sexual abuse because they don’t want to talk to anyone with an active case (they may charge him with a lesser crime).
The police don’t want me to post about this to my large LinkedIn connections in case it is used by the defence as attempting to “prejudice the jury” despite me using a different name professionally.
Oh, and I did try to report within 12 months but the police fobbed me off at the time.
I believe this is the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, dwarfing the post office scandal for numbers of victims (who can’t even be counted if they even went to the police).
The world is a truly horrible place that protects child rapists and I am deeply despairing.