Rape tsar QUITS Britain slamming ‘lack of will’ to change in the police and civil service – as she returns to the US ‘because she does not feel safe in the UK’
The Government’s rape adviser has sensationally quit the role to return to the US – claiming there is a ‘lack of will’ in the police and civil service to change how they approach sex attacks and that she ‘does not feel safe in Britain.’
Emily Hunt, the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) independent adviser to its Rape Review, said myths about rape are perpetuated at high levels of the civil service and police.
Ms Hunt, an American-British citizen who is herself an abuse survivor, quit the role saying she no longer has faith in the British criminal justice system.
She had been appointed to provide the MoJ provide with specialist advice on victims of rape and their experiences of the criminal justice system.
But in an interview with Channel 4 News, Ms Hunt said that she had come across people who ‘innately believe in rape myth’ at the highest levels, and ‘got to the point where I don’t think I could ever report a crime to the police in this country again’.
She told Channel 4 News anchor Cathy Newman: ‘It’s going to sound silly but fundamentally we need to remember that the Government and all of the operational partners from the police to the prosecutors to the judges, they’re all just people.
‘People innately believe in rape myth. So, you have people going through their day-to-day lives who believe that: ‘Oh, well, maybe her skirt was too short. Maybe she was drinking.’
‘I have more come across it more within the professional and civil service side. I’d say that ministers are more careful around me.’
Ms Hunt added that she found it ‘scary’ to live in a country where there is ‘no criminal justice system to keep me safe’.
She announced plans to return to the US, where figures suggest one in six women will be victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, according to RAINN, America’s Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
She added: ‘I got to the point where I realised I don’t think I could ever report a crime to the police in this country again, at least not right now.
‘And that made me feel really, really unsafe, because I do still have somebody out there who was harassing and stalking me.
‘And it is very scary to feel unsafe and unprotected and to feel like if anything happened, I don’t have a criminal justice system to keep me safe and that it’s part of why I’m leaving.’
A recruitment campaign to find a new adviser is due to launch later this year. Ms Hunt was invited to reapply for her role, but she has chosen not to.
Ms Hunt approached the Government to offer her insight into how the justice system examines cases of rape and sexual assault after her own nightmarish experience of pursuing justice.
In 2015, she awoke naked in a hotel room with a stranger who she suspected had drugged and raped her.
She later discovered the man, Christopher Killick, had also filmed her while she was unconscious.
After a lengthy five-year battle, Killock was convicted of voyeurism – but not rape charges because the CPS found there was not enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.
Earlier this year, he was handed a suspended jail term after flouting a restraining order.
Judge Noel Carey handed Killick a 14-month prison sentence suspended for two years, a 35-day rehabilitation requirement and 160 hours unpaid work.
At the time, Ms Hunt said she lived in fear of him turning up on her doorstep, adding: ‘I’ve had to install security cameras, I have a baseball bat in my bedroom by the door.’
Killick is under a indefinite restraining order which bans him from contacting Ms Hunt via her personal website, social media and in person.
Her personal experience was what inspired her to become an independent adviser to the government on rape and sexual violence in 2020.
She was tasked to advise the government on the Rape Review and Action Plan, launched in June 2021.
It was launched in a bid to address low charge and conviction rates and ‘improve the response to victims at every stage’.
Earlier this year, a findings report found the Government was ‘making significant progress’ towards its target of more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching court.
Ms Hunt’s decision to quit her role comes amid dwindling confidence in the police, high profile convictions for rape and sexual assault against serving police officers, and record numbers of sexual offences being reported to police.
A total of 193,566 sexual offences were recorded by police forces in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This is an increase of 30,322 sexual offences compared with the year ending March 2020 and an increase of 45,731 from the previous year.
The ONS has urged ‘caution’ when interpreting the data on sexual offences, which could be affected by a ‘number of factors’.
Just 51 per cent of the British public believe police in the UK are doing a good job, according to polling commissioned by YouGov last month – down from a peak of 77 per cent in December 2019.
Earlier this year, a damning report into the Met Police found that rape and domestic violence survivors were made to feel like an ‘inconvenience’ by overworked and inexperienced officers.
Rape victims described being told they ‘should and could have done more’ to protect themselves by ‘sarcastic’, ‘rude’ and ‘dismissive’ investigators within Britain’s biggest force.
Officers who were interviewed for the report admitted that they would label cases NFA – ‘no further action’ – to lighten their workload.
One said: ‘If you look at our performance around rape, serious sexual offences, the detection rate is so low you may as well say it’s legal in London.
‘It’s kind of reflective of how we treat and view our female colleagues. You get victim-blaming, looking at a situation and not believing them.’
The damning dossier on working culture in the Met, which concluded the force was ‘institutionally racist’ as well as misogynistic and homophobic, also revealed a shocking lack of care in handling evidence in rape cases; in one case, vital DNA samples were stored next to a lunchbox in the fridge.
Several Met police officers have also been convicted of serious sexual offences in recent years as the force’s problems have come to the fore. More than 1,000 are currently suspended or on restricted duties amid investigations into their conduct.
David Carrick, an armed officer with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years after being convicted of a string of offences against 12 women.
Carrick repeatedly and brutally raped his victims and engaged in violence and coercive control, including locking one woman in a tiny cupboard, urinating on another, strangulation, making threats with a gun and using them as ‘sex slaves’.
Since his trial more than ten people have reported to have contacted police with further information or fresh allegations against the former police officer.
And in August, Met constable Adam Provan was sentenced to 16 years in jail after raping a fellow officer and a 16-year-old girl.
Campaigners claim that opportunities were missed to catch Carrick and Provan after concerns about their behaviour were dismissed by Met chiefs.
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life sentence after using Covid laws to detain, kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard in March 2021.
Couzens had been nicknamed ‘The Rapist’ by colleagues, and had been linked to flashing incidents before he killed Ms Everard.
Her murder sparked protests among women in London, which were then clamped down on by the Met Police – later resulting in payouts to two women after top brass admitted that protesters had been left feeling ‘badly let down’ by their heavy-handed approach to policing vigils.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said of Ms Hunt’s resignation: ‘We thank Emily Hunt for her valuable work over the last two years, supporting the Government in exceeding all three ambitions of our Rape Review ahead of schedule.
‘We remain determined to stamp out these appalling crimes, making sure the criminal justice system supports victims and holds perpetrators to account.’
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