Women who were not taken seriously when reporting rape able to gain compensation from police. Yes!

[Scarletohello]

I really wanted to share this. Many women are not taken seriously by the police when they report rape. This case involves a black cab driver who was eventually convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a huge amount of women in London but the ones that came forward initially were not believed and so John Worboys went on to assault many more women. A landmark case and I really hope it makes the police take these cases more seriously.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/28/john-worboys-victims-met-police-compensation

I posted this in chat but no one commented so thought it might be better here. Any thoughts?

About time! I was having a discussion the other day about how sad and infuriating I find women not being taken seriously about these things. The conversation started when I brought up the woman recently who found the vile voicemail left on her phone by the police

Active link

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/28/john-worboys-victims-met-police-compensation

Yes. Could be a game changer. I really hope police lawyers are taking note of this. There are too many cases when cases are dismissed out of hand. Although I do appreciate how incredibly hard it can be to get a conviction which must affect how police view cases. But, that's no excuse for the culture of disbelief that sadly seems to exist amongst some police forces.

It's just awful. I know people who haven't reported rape simply because they didn't think they would be taken seriously

That's good.

The thing that I find sad about this is the idea that if the police feel it might impact them financially, this will encourage them to investigate rape reports properly.

One of the women in this case was one of the first to report him back in 2003. If they had taken her and other early victims seriously they might well have been able to get him off the streets years earlier and thus save scores of victims. The fact that this is not seen as a motivator for the Met to do better with rape and sexual assault reports is just utterly depressing.

Nice I agree but if money is what it takes for the police to do their job properly and take these cases seriously then that has to be a good thing, especially if it is now coming from the top...

What kind of police force do we have if they care more for money than for preventing rape?

If that is the case then they are totally unfit for purpose and the whole thing needs demolishing and starting again.

Well I think the whole criminal justice system is not fit for purpose when we have a situation where there are aprix 85,000 tapes committed every year, only 10% of which are reported and of those, there is only a 7% conviction rate...

Correction, aprox 85,000 rapes ( typing too fast)

Read this article featuring Betsy Stanko, an academic an advisor to the police discussing the obstacles to vulnerable women in reporting rape and getting convictions...

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rape-of-vulnerable-women-has-been-effectively-decriminalised-9161336.html

But to have it laid out as starkly as that...

The Metropolitan police care more about money than they do about rape victims.

Is just so bleak.

If you are a victim of rape you have a 0.01% chance of the perpetrator being convicted. As Betsy Stanko and others have said, rape has essentially been decriminalised so yes it is pretty bleak.

The transcript of the judgement is here.

Good to see that the Police didn't seek to test the evidence of the two claimants. It's interesting reading and gives an account of what the Police did and didn't do. It also gives an account of what Worboys did - so if you feel that you might be adversely affected by such accounts, don't venture to the link.

Beatrix, thanks for posting that.

It highlights so many issues, firstly, the ( victim blaming ) ad campaign telling women not to get an unlicensed mini can home. This was a black cab driver so implicitly trusted.

The fact that it was because this case was reported in the press that one of the victims was eventually taken seriously because the Sexual Assault Referral Centre where she was seen, notified the police. ( this case is such a good example of why rape cases must be reported in the press as so many women don't come forward but if a case is reported they may and many perpetrators are repeat offenders)

Thirdly, the devastating effect on one of the victims of not being believed, leading to depression and her questioning her own sanity. And also feeling responsible for all the other attacks that followed.

I really hope that this case will affect how the police investigate rape cases in the future and especially drug facilitated rape...