Press Index
(read longer extracts in Press highlights or click headline to read full article)

2008

• Rapists in the ranks, LA Times publishes figures on rape in the US military
• Senior Met officer blames scepticism and inertia for low conviction rate, Clare Dyer, Guardian,  4 March

• Report & photo of the Trial

• 'Why society is still failing prostitutes' Guardian Letters

• Press coverage in advance of the Trial

• Article in Tribune about safety of sex workers

• 'Why is conviction rate so appallingly low?' The Guardian quotes WAR, 15 Jan 08

2007

Our November TV comments can be viewed at:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7116336.stm and on YouTube - if you type in “Women Against Rape” you’ll see a clip from News 24
· Time limit on child abuse cases is tested in House of Lords, The Guardian, 5 November
· Rapist's DNA stored untested for 4 years, compilation of articles, including WAR quoted in the press
· . . . New research commissioned by the Met police delved into the Met’s own case files . . . for the first time checked out the histories of suspects.  Article by Beatrix Campbell in New Statesman 16 April.
· Beyond reasonable doubt  Less than six per cent of all rapes reported to the police result in a conviction, and juries are often blamed for letting rapists walk free. So what's it like to sit on a jury at a rape trial? An anonymous juror offers his unique insight.   Guardian,  12 April
· One-fifth of British women were sexually abused as children, By Sophie Goodchild, The Independent, 1 April
· Anonymity law change: The debate Manchester Evening News 28 March
· My sister was killed while the police did nothing The killings shocked the country: women murdered by ex-partners despite warnings of stalking to the police. David Rose investigates how the tragedies happened and learns of the families' search for justice. The Observer, 11 March.
· Women who falsely cry rape could be named and shamed by judges The Times, 10 March.
· Royal Navy sailor jailed for rape 14 March
· Rape Convictions, Published letter to The Guardian, 9 Feb

· Third of dropped rape cases should have been pursued, says report, The Guardian, 31 Jan

2006

· WAR appeared on Radio 4's Today programme, Nov 16th 7.50 a.m. on date-rape drugs and alcohol - you can listen on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/zthursday_20061116.shtml
And Oct 21st 7.55 a.m. on anonymity for rape victims www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/zsaturday_20061021.shtml

· 'Rebecca wanted to drop the rape case, but I said no. Now I feel that I've let her down' A mother tells of her daughter's devastating court ordeal after failures led to an acquittal, Observer, 10 Dec 06

· 'Everything in my life has crumbled' A new study says that women asylum seekers who claim to have been raped in their own countries are rarely believed in British courts, Guardian, 6 Dec

· Why is Tony Blair sending this gang-rape victim back to her attackers? Sunday Telegraph

· 'Rape victim' rounds on peer who named her as liar
'Setback' for all women who suffer sexual assault/ Campaigners appalled by peer's use of parliament, Diane Taylor, Guardian, October 21, 2006

· When abuse of privilege is itself a crime, Marcel Berlins, Guardian, 23 Oct 06

· The end of all hope Caroline Moorhead, Wednesday, 23 Aug 2006, Guardian

· Six months youth custody after accused filmed teenager's lap dance on mobile, 18 Sep 2006

· Most hate crime victims suffer in silence,
Laura Smith, Guardian, Aug 16, 2006, Response from Commander Steve Allen, letter from WAR & BWRAP to Guardian, letter to Camden New Journal.

· "Don't you want to know why I'm bleeding?"
A man was convicted of GBH against a Muslim woman, with the help of BWRAP & WAR
Guardian, Aug 06

· Devious barristers and ignorant judges allow a woman’s sexual past to be disclosed in rape trials, The Times, 21 June 2006

· Raped, Tortured... But denied asylum by the UK Home Office
Voice, 12 Jul 06

· Sentences for rapes after 'intimacy' cut
Front page of the Times, by Frances Gibb, Legal Editor, June 8 2006
Rape victims denied refuge in Britain Letter published in The Independent, 24 May 2006

• 'Why we believe the police have lost sight of rape'
  By Lisa Longstaff and Cristel Amiss, The Times , Tuesday 17 January 2006
  While Tony and Ian Blair focus on defeating terrorists, are domestic violence, rape and racist assault being forgotten?

· The low conviction rate is not a postcode lottery, but predictable injustice
Letter to The Independent, 4 April

• Cautions for rape are the tip of the iceberg, but women won't be deterred from reporting
  Letters to The Times & Evening Standard, 13 April

2005

· When we're treated like criminals, not victims -The tension between progress in women's equality and backlash is evident in our attitudes to sexual violence, Natasha Walter, The Guardian

· One in three people blame women for being raped, finds Amnesty survey 21 November 2005

· "The Home Office does not believe rapes and beatings amount to persecution" says Green MEP Jean Lambert in letter to The Guardian, 14 Oct

· Letter to Camden New Journal re: Anthony Hardy, the 'Camden Ripper' 6 Oct 2005

· The family no one could save, Guardian, 7 June 2005: For 14 months, Julia Pemberton told anyone who would listen that her husband was going to kill her. When he finally forced his way into her home with a gun, she made a desperate 999 call. By the time the police arrived she and her son William were dead. Now her family want to know why no one took any notice.  

· Evening Standard  29 March, "We're not asking that rape be made a special case, just that it be treated as a serious crime" read more in Press Highlights

· PRESS STATEMENT: On International Women's Day, we demand justice for Giuliana Sgrena and the Iraqi women raped and killed by US troops, 8 March 

· More rapes are reported than ever before but convictions are falling Sunday Times, 27 Feb

· Letter to the Guardian, 19 Feb 05 Calling for justice for Giuliana Sgrena, journalist from Italian newspaper Il Manisfesto who was kidnapped in Iraq 4 Feb 2005 and who reported the truth about what was happening to women and children under the occupation

· Read about Giuliana Sgrena in WeNews, Feb

· Statement to the media, from WAR and BWRAP about Guiliana Sgrena, 5 Feb

2004

• Women and children first , Deportations of asylum seekers have taken a vicious new turn & Refugees 'detained during legal process', The Guardian, 14 August 
• Letter in the Guardian, 25 June 
• IRAQ PRISON SCANDAL, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 
• Huntley was not a one-off Claire Glasman and Lisa Longstaff of WAR report on the Soham murder case, The Independent, 6 January 

2003

• Woman fears her freed rapist will attack again, Frances Gibb, The Times 31 July 
  A WOMAN who brought the first private prosecution for rape has appealed to the police for protection because she fears the rapist, who is about to be freed, has been following her movements..
• Dark side of peacekeeping Kofi Annan is calling for UN troops to be sent to Liberia to halt the civil war. But are such operations necessarily a force for good? There are disturbing reports of rape and prostitution in Sierra Leone and former Yugoslavia, The Independent, 10 July 
• In Kenya, the British army stands accused of systematic abuses Natasha Walter, The Guardian 5 July  
• Kenyan Women To Sue British Army for Alleged Rapes Jennifer Friedlin, WeNews
• Women at Broadmoor used as guinea pigs for male sex offenders, says former patient, The Independent on Sunday 16 March
• Chris Arnot reports on research that questions the legal right of violent parents to retain contact with their children, The Guardian, 8 Jan 

2002

• 'Native American Women Organise Against Rape and Sexual Assault'
  V-Day launched the Indian Country Project to raise awareness and funds to stop violence against Native American women in the U.S. and First Nations women in Canada.
• Unpublished letter to The Guardian, 26 November from WAR
  The law says that if a man believes the woman consented, even if his belief is unreasonable, he cannot be found guilty of rape. Many men believe that women are or should be sexually available to them. Instead of disabusing them of this belief, the law gives it credence.
• Unpublished letter to The Guardian, 22 November from WinVisible - Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities
  It is galling to see protection against rape of people with learning disabilities or mental illness presented as entirely new by the government in their White Paper [part of the Sexual Offences Review], then uncritically reported.
• A woman's consent was at the centre of the recent overhaul of the sexual-offences laws, yet it is still up to women to prove that they were raped. 
  The Independent 26 Nov 2002
• 'Spain Harassment Trial is Rare Victory for Women', Womens E-news, September
  A mayor in northern Spain was convicted of sexually harassing one of his employees, he was fined the equivalent of $6,500 and ordered to pay $12,000 in damages.  
• 'Rape by soldiers is much more than 'simple lust'
  The authorities do not dispute that she was raped. They dispute the idea that this can be a form of persecution
  Natasha Walter, The Independent, 18 July
• 'The Rape Escape'
  Private Eye, No 1055.  31 May - 13 June
  Louisa a 33 year-old woman from east London had to overcome many hurdles before her allegations of rape against her adoptive father finally got to court. She described how the man, who was married to her sister and had taken her into his family from the age of 12, had abused her as a servant and for sex in both their native Ghana and when he later brought her to Britain.
• Unpublished letter to the Guardian, 10 May
  The latest report on the police and Crown Prosecution Service exposes a disastrous process from reporting through to trial.

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