Kirk Reid

Today's measures can have little impact in the face of a culture that systematically neglects victims of sexual assault

Guardian 15 April 09
by Libby Brooks

I have only heard one person expounding at length that women regularly "cry rape" in order to enjoy a free ride home in a squad car after a night out. And he was a detective sergeant. Certainly, a tiny and overexposed minority do confect allegations. Many, many more do not. This is Britain in the spring of 2009. An estimated 47,000 women are raped in this country every year. Between 75% and 95% of them will never report their attack. Of those who do, only a quarter make it to court, and there face an abject conviction rate of 6.5%. By my most conservative calculations, this results in 191 of those 47,000 ever seeing justice done.

From The Times
April 22, 2009

Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent

A taxi driver feared to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex attackers was jailed indefinitely yesterday for drugging and assaulting a string of women in his cab.

John Worboys, 51, a former stripper, was told at Croydon Crown court that he would serve a minimum of eight years by a judge who said he had “perfected a web of deceit” to ensnare young women.

Evening Standard, ES message board, 30 March 2009

WHEN my daughter was raped I convinced her to report it to the police.

They treated her well and we thought that meant we'd get justice. An IPCC report has now confirmed that the Southwark police investigation into her rape was a total disaster: evidence was lost or not gathered and the rapist wasn't arrested for months.

This and other rapes were left in the hands of unqualified and uncaring officers while resources were diverted to vehicle and property crimes.

Those who help victims of rape need more funding, says Lisa Longstaff of Camden's Women Against Rape team

Viewpoint, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 2 April 2009

Your readers may have seen the widespread coverage of police negligence in the recent cases of convicted serial rapists Worboys and Reid.

Based in Camden for over 30 years, WAR has spearheaded a movement of rape survivors demanding justice from the criminal justice system. In those years while fighting many individual cases, we have

-- won recognition that rape in marriage is a crime (1991).

-- helped bring the first successful private prosecution for rape (1995).

Despite claims of 'progress', conviction rates for rape and violent crime have not risen, says Lisa Longstaff

The Guardian, Thursday 2 April 2009 

Following the disasters of the John Worboys and Kirk Reid rape cases, assistant Met commissioner John Yates admits that "nothing can excuse the failure to follow up straightforward lines of inquiry" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/26/john-yates-police Reinventing our response, 27 March).

But he tries to soften the blow by quoting a victim of Worboys - caught after years and maybe hundreds of victims - who told officers: "The most amazing thing you said when I first called up was, 'You will be believed.'"

Appeal: The police are asking women who may have been raped or sexually assaulted by John Worboys to come forward. We too would like to be in touch with you. Please email: war@womenagainstrape.net or call (020) 7482 2496, and leave a message and your number.