We’re all familiar with the facts about the inadequacies of police response in many cases of reported rape. Today’s news brings another report of such inadequacy: a woman in Cambridgeshire’s report was forgotten in a pile of papers on a desk. No crime was recorded, no investigator was sent to speak to her. By the time anyone bothered what may have been crucial CCTV evidence was destroyed. It seems her mental health problems compounded police complacency:
campaigners said research suggested a higher proportion of rapes reported by victims with mental illness ended up being “no-crimed”. “This case reflects a concerning attitude among police to rape itself and to women with mental health problems,” said Ceri Goddard, Fawcett Society chief executive.
Interestingly, the woman was able to make a claim against the police that their failure to record the crime was a breach of her human rights (although this resulted in an out of court settlement).
Wow. Glad she sued and won.
Her comment is so striking:
It is so often the case that people who are abused like this in a clearly criminal way nonetheless feel very negatively about themselves. I hope winning the case helps her recovery.
Jender: she didn’t win. It was an out of court settlement, which I guess means that the case was then dropped (anyone with better knowledge of these proceedings than I please say!).