Why do the police deal with rape cases so badly? Lisa Longstaff in the Guardian

Their record in rape cases is abysmal – and they seem to resent accountability, preferring to improve PR rather than performance Lisa Longstaff theguardian.com, Monday 4 March 2013 09.00 GMT Allegations of sexual violence and cover-up are threatening every institution. Can rape be dealt with when so many in authority are themselves guilty? Of course …

Read more

Police pay compensation in precedent rape claim

PRESS RELEASE A landmark civil suit was settled on recently with the Metropolitan police paying £15,000 damages to a woman whose rape when she was 15 was badly mishandled by a police Sapphire Team in Southwark, London. With the scandals in the news of scores of girls raped over years in Rochdale, Rotherham and by …

Read more

India & UK: grassroots women demand justice

India & UK: grassroots women demand justice The mass protests taking place all over India, and the international support for them, show how determined women are to end rape, and how we face similar violence and similar sexism by the authorities, wherever we are. For years our Indian sisters in Chhattisgarh have been organizing against …

Read more

Savile, Rochdale, Wales, Jersey . . . Justice this time? Or more ‘lessons’ in how to get away with rape?

Savile, Rochdale, Wales, Jersey . . . Justice this time? Or more ‘lessons’ in how to get away with rape? 14 December 2012 Complicity followed by incompetence in the Savile case landed the BBC in deep waters, to the delight of those who wish to undermine public broadcasting and to the chagrin of the taxpayer …

Read more

No retribution. Women in detention protest brutality by guards

“We were held for many hours, without food, some women fainting and ill.” On Wednesday 17 October, 200 women were “kettled” in a corridor in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire for eight hours.  The detention centre remains in “lock down”.  Some have been stopped from getting their medication.  Five women are being held …

Read more

Report of Slutwalk 2012

By English Collective of Prostitutes Over 2000 people, mainly women, sallied down Piccadilly for the second London Slutwalk on 22 September. Home-made placards ruled from ‘Sluts & Plebs Unite’ to ‘Compensate Rape Survivors, not Banks’. Many reflected fury at police, prosecutors and courts which ensure that ‘97% of all rapists won’t spend a day behind …

Read more

Former Met police officer admits failing to investigate rape cases

Former Met office admits failing to investigate rape cases Ryan Coleman-Farrow faked police reports, failed to pass on evidence and falsely claimed to have interviewed suspectsShare 150 Sandra Laville, crime correspondentguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 September 2012 14.51 BST An investigator from the Metropolitan police specialist sex crimes unit has admitted failing to investigate the alleged rapes …

Read more

Should Julian Assange be extradited?

Oliver Laughland, Series: The conversation Friday 24 August 2012 20.59 BST Should Julian Assange be extradited? The author, critic and playwright Bonnie Greer and Lisa Longstaff, from the advocacy group Women Against Rape, debate the fate of the WikiLeaks boss Bonnie Greer and Lisa Longstaff. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian As the diplomatic crisis over Julian Assange intensifies …

Read more

We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited

We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Julian Assange extradited For decades we have campaigned to get rapists caught, charged and convicted. But the pursuit of Assange is political Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff The Guardian, Thursday 23 August 2012 When Julian Assange was first arrested, we were struck by the unusual …

Read more