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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Two Sisters Sexually Assaulted by Same Man Silenced by Attacker With Gagging Order

37 replies

Estraya · 28/11/2019 13:27

I was linked to this by someone on my facebook and thought people here might like to contribute. The full text is below:

We are two sisters looking to raise a minimum of £4000 to cover our legal costs so that we can be represented as we face our attacker in the High Court.

In August 2017 we were sexually assaulted on the same night by the same man. The man who assaulted us is now trying to silence us with a gagging order in the High Court, citing misuse of private information and harassment, after we spoke out about our experience at the encouragement of the police.

We fear that if we cannot obtain the necessary funds to cover our legal fees, we would be banned from talking about the abuse we suffered at his hands forever. Please contribute now and share this page with your friends, family and on social media.

The precedent this case could set is huge and is far greater than ourselves.

If our abuser were to be successful, this would have implications for many others and allow for rapists to bring similar cases against their victims.

We cannot allow this to happen, especially as large numbers of victims are finally having the strength to come forward following the #MeToo movement.

These are discussions we should be encouraging, not shutting down. It is not fair for victims to suffer in silence, or to be forced back into silence by the man who sexually assaulted them.

We have used our experiences to speak out and shine a light on the issues facing survivors of sexual abuse. We set up a non-profit organisation that uses campaigns and advocacy to raise awareness and in doing so it has helped others and ourselves heal. We offer peer support and guidance to other survivors of sexual violence and fear that being silenced will prevent us from continuing this.

When it is thought that there may be other victims of a perpetrator it is important to speak out in the hopes that other victims may come forward which can help secure a criminal conviction. Speaking out also allows victims to reclaim their narrative in an attempt to heal and re-find their voice. Using their voice to tell their story raises awareness, reduces stigma, and creates an environment that encourages other survivors to come forward and disclose. It is paramount that survivors are allowed to state what happened to them and its impacts. If survivors were prevented from speaking out, nothing would ever change.

How much are we raising and why?

We are looking to raise a minimum of £4000 so that we can fund our legal representation at a trial in January. We desperately need to raise this so that we do not have to face our abuser alone. After we reach this initial target, we need to raise as much as possible to successfully fight the injunction our abuser is attempting to place on us. We will be waiving our right to anonymity so that we can crowd fund for our defence team.

Please contribute anything that you are able and share this page now!

Post edited by MNHQ

OP posts:
Langbannedforsafeguardingkids · 29/01/2020 09:15

How is it legal for him to ban them from talking about something that happened to them, part of their lived experience? Just how......?

MorrisZapp · 29/01/2020 09:19

I don't understand any of this. How can a court force anyone not to tell the truth?

Cordylina · 29/01/2020 09:25

Has he been named in Parliament?

gemmaxyz · 29/01/2020 09:29

It sounds as if it has similarities to the Stocker strangling case
www.itv.com/news/2019-04-03/woman-wins-libel-battle-over-husband-strangle-post-on-facebook/

  • but it helped a lot in that case that the ex-husband had already been prosecuted and found guilty, which boiled it down to semantics. It seems like the police advised the Nevitt sisters to speak out because it could encourage more victims to come forward and help strengthen the case against the accused. Without more info from media reports that can't exist it's hard to say.
ChicChicChicChiclana · 29/01/2020 09:32

I don't understand how him having a gagging order has any connection to the affordability or not of their legal representation. Aren't lawyers provided by the state? Some more information from those in the know would be very welcome on this thread. Is the accused being given anonymity because of the innocent until proven guilty argument?

gemmaxyz · 29/01/2020 09:45

Legal Aid is pretty limited for civil cases, and this for starters doesn't fit the standard categories where it does apply. Someone who works with injunctions will be able to be more specific.

The anonymity is because it's an injunction. (To stop someone being named in the media and social media.) The accused must be well off enough to get an injunction. If this case were to set a precedent, speaking out about abusers who could afford to go to court for injunctions would become a problem.

ChicChicChicChiclana · 29/01/2020 09:47

But why is it a civil case?

gemmaxyz · 29/01/2020 09:54

The accused must have brought an injunction to stop them talking publicly about him having done something he hasn't been convicted of, and it was granted. That would come under civil law. It is a case paid for by private means in a civil court.

It's separate from the issue of him being prosecuted or not (police, CPS - criminal law). From the limited info that can be gathered here, it sounds like the police hoped further victims would come forward if these young women spoke out, and that that would help build a stronger case against the abuser.

MoleSmokes · 29/01/2020 11:29

Some more info about Lucy and Verity Nevitt.

This is their project but there is nothing on their website about their personal circumstances - due to the gagging order?

The Gemini Project
thegeminiproject.org/aboutus/

The Gemini Project was founded in August 2018 by twins Lucy and Verity Nevitt. After experiencing sexual assault and harassment from a young age and again in adulthood they decided to direct their energy into The Gemini Project and use their experiences with sexual assault to advocate and campaign for change.

‘After experiencing the results of sexual assault we wanted to make sure that others wouldn’t end up with similar experiences. We wish we had known certain things and been given the tools and education to deal with and understand what had happened. We were always told that sexual violence was rare and committed by strangers in dark alleys, but in reality 500,000 people are sexually assaulted each year In England and Wales with approx. 85,000 women and 12,000 men being raped, with 90% of perpetrators being known to the victim prior to the assault and many assaults happening within the victims own home.’

‘We believe that it is important to draw attention to and speak out about failings within education, the justice system and within society as a whole. Only by starting a conversation can we expect to see change, and that’s exactly what we are trying to do.’

The Gemini Project aims to reduce the number of sexual assault and harassment cases in the UK through campaigns and advocacy, as well as to provide signposting information and peer support. Our campaigns include mandatory consent education in all primary and secondary schools, judicial reform including the implementation of a victim’s law and increased funding and accessibility for survivor support services. We hope to help other survivors and offer knowledge that wasn’t available to us. We also have a blog space available for survivors to share their stories and get involved with The Gemini Project.

Gemini Project Campaigns

(Extracts)

Our first campaign aims to provide all primary and secondary school children with mandatory education on consent. With the implementation of compulsory sex education in all UK primary and secondary schools in 2020 we are calling on the government to include consent education as part of the national curriculum for children in all primary and secondary schools in order to reduce sexual assault and harassment.

Read more about consent here: thegeminiprojectorg.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/what-is-consent/

Our Second campaign aims to increase victim support and improve the justice system. This campaign focuses on demanding a victims law which the government have continuously promised but failed to deliver on despite stating that protecting survivors of sexual violence and supporting victims was a key priority.

Included with the campaign for a victims law, we are calling for judicial reform to ensure that the justice system is victim focused and fit for purpose. We are also calling for increased funding in these areas, particularly survivor support services.

Read more about our thoughts on the government’s victims strategy and the victims law here: thegeminiprojectorg.wordpress.com/2018/09/10/our-thoughts-on-the-governments-victims-strategy/

Our third campaign is to reform the language used by the media when reporting on cases of sexual violence.

The media has an obligation to report factual and unbiased information to members of the public. At present their reporting methods feed into and create societal myths. We are calling on the media to change the way they report cases of sexual violence.

Morning Star - Protesters call for Cyprus boycott over alleged gang-rape case
Jan 6 2020
morningstaronline.co.uk/article/protesters-call-cyprus-boycott-over-alleged-gang-rape-case

(Extract - nothing about their own case)

Lucy Nevitt, co-founder of Gemini Project with her twin sister Verity, told the Star that their campaign for justice will “absolutely” continue until the charges against the young woman are dropped and she returns to Britain.

She added: “We want her to be home with her support network. But her passport has been confiscated.

“We also want the British government to intervene and ensure there is an investigation to see if her human rights have been violated in the police station and during the trial.”

In Parliament Square, her sister Verity accused Cypriot authorities of a “miscarriage of justice.”

Daily Echo - Lucy and Verity Nevitt hit back in support of British teen who was sentenced over Ayia Napa gang rape claim
8 Jan 2020

(Extract - again no mention of their case - the gagging order in evidence??)

TWO Southampton women are hitting back in support of the British teenager who was found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Ayia Napa.

Identical twins Lucy and Verity Nevitt, both 22, led a protest in London calling on the UK government to intervene in the case.

Amongst women’s rights groups who protested ahead of the sentencing was The Gemini Project, a support group run by Lucy and Verity against sexual violence.

Around 200 protesters marched for justice with them from Cypriot Embassy, London, through to Parliament Square, on Monday.

Video on Twitter:
twitter.com/normaburke/status/1214254980699430912

"The two university students, who attend Goldsmiths University, started the project to campaign for change in the judicial system.

They want to decrease the “burden of proof” on sexual assault victims, take away the data and background checks on them, and remove juries from sexual violence cases.

Lucy, who studies psychology, said: “Our first demonstration just blew up, it was so incredibly humbling, therapeutic and empowering.

“It was our goal to help just one person. We have already done that so now, anyone else we help is just a bonus. Me and Verity campaign in our free time between studies - our family have been so supportive.

“We want the Crown Prosecution Service to use the same amount of proof as they need in other criminal cases, as they require ten percent more proof in sexual assault cases.”

She added: “We disagree with the need for juries, as rape culture means that many cases are dropped due to misconception. Not enough people understand the trauma involved in sexual assault. The whole process is so invasive.

Mockers2020Vision · 29/01/2020 12:35

If you write to your MP, or any other MP or peer, they can use parliamentary privilige to name anyone in the course of parliamentary debate.

gemmaxyz · 29/01/2020 14:17

Their MP is aware of the case as she tweeted the Crowdjustice link in November.
It seems like they have to delete tweets soon after posting - there was a Twitter thread from the 25th January in which someone asked them about things like how unusual it was for there to be an injunction about something like this, and it looks like a conversation, but all the replies with info are deleted. A couple of weeks ago, when I first heard about this case, there was a conversation under another tweet where someone said that various publications and legal blogs would be interested, tagging them, she said plenty of reporters had been in touch but the injunction prevented her discussing anything with them - and that whole thread has gone now too.

toothfairy73 · 29/01/2020 14:24

You can still donate if you look at their Facebook page, there is a link on their page en-gb.facebook.com/thegeminiproj/

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