The Rape of Justice

Photo by: Crossroads Women's Photo Collective

Louise Nousratpour
Tuesday February 19, 2008
The Morning Star

RAPE survivors charged politicians, police, judges and immigration adjudicators with the "rape of justice" at a mock trial this weekend which exposed the "crummy" conviction rate of sex offenders.

Saturday's theatrical trial in London, complete with three bewigged "judges" and a witness stand, heard distressing stories from survivors as they sobbed through their testimonies.

Taking the "witness" stand, woman after woman began her speech with: "I put on trial" the British Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Solicitor General Vera Baird, Women and Equality Minister Harriet Harman, Met Commissioner Ian Blair, to name a few, for failing to deliver justice and demanded action.

The "jury" declared them all guilty of perverting the course of justice, criminal negligence and failing in their duty of care.

Women Against Rape (WAR), which organised the event, sent "court summons" to every authority and individual on trial. Unsurprisingly, they all declined to attend.

Less than 6 per cent of reported rapes result in conviction, despite statistics showing that one in six women in Britain have been raped.

The authorities were accused of falling back on "sexist, racist and other deep-rooted prejudice" when dealing with cases.

Women and children are still put on trial or blamed for being raped, discouraged from reporting, disbelieved and even accused of lying and imprisoned.

One witness, a police officer known only as Ms A, told the "court" how a male colleague had raped her and got away with it.

"My MP said he did not want to get involved for fear of 'upsetting' the force and the judge eventually threw my case out, calling me a 'whore' and saying my injuries were 'self-inflicted'," she recalled.

A Jamaican mother charged her local police in east London with the rape of her son in 2005.

"He was raped by a police officer in a cell after being arrested during one of these stop-and-search operations," she alleged.

"As soon as I began filing charges against my local police, six officers showed up at my house and arrested me on immigration charges. They took me to a removal centre and threatened to deport me."

The "court" even heard from Iraqi women, who had suffered rape and sexual humiliation at the hands of occupation troops.

Speaking on their behalf, Malak Hamdan of the League of Iraqi Women prisoners charged Tony Blair and George Bush with being "culpable in the rape and sexual humiliation of Iraqi women, children and men in US-controlled prisons as well as on the streets."

On a lighter note, the absentee "defendants" were represented by a brilliant performance from WAR activists and survivors.

Rape prosecutor "Anthony R. Slicker FU QC" said in his defence: "These are uniquely difficult cases. They are so provocative, these young girls in short skirts and drunk. The defendant may have misunderstood her signals."

Solicitor General "Viola Blurred" told her critics: "Take your grievances and shove them in our big complaint box."

The jury unanimously ruled "guilty as charged."

Giving the verdict, "prosecutor" Ruth Hall said: "The people responsible are not enforcing the law and they should be held to account by being relieved of their jobs.

"The government claims that things are getting better, but this is ridiculous in the context of what we have witnessed here today."