Dear Friends,
We are pleased to announce that on Tuesday we helped a woman in our network win £10,200 compensation. She had suffered a particularly prolonged and horrific rape but had been denied any award because she was a heroin user at the time she was raped. We represented her at a compensation appeal hearing and are delighted she has finally won some justice.
This follows a very busy period. Following the scandalous Worboys, Reid and Southwark cases this summer, we met with the Director of Public Prosecutions (head of the CPS) and senior officers setting up the new London-wide police teams that have taken over from Sapphire. We told them what changes were needed to improve investigations and prosecutions, and two survivors in our group illustrated the problems by describing their own recent experiences. All were interested and respectful, but we wait to see if there is real change in practice.
