Latest news with #RapeonTrial
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- The Guardian
Stacey Dooley: Rape on Trial review – it's impossible not to feel profound admiration for these brave women
It's a tough job, being the presenter of a documentary about rape and its victims. But – given the enduring and increasingly scandalous horrors those victims are facing in a country whose appallingly flawed legal approach has effectively decriminalised the act – someone's got to do it. This time it is Stacey Dooley's job. The two-part documentary Rape on Trial focuses on the difficulties presented by cases in which the supposed perpetrator and victim are known to each other. It also looks at the suffering caused by the ever-lengthening delays between rapes being reported and reaching trial, in the surpassingly rare instance (despite recent efforts to improve matters) that the Crown Prosecution Service agrees to let them proceed. The documentary was slated to take a year to film – it ended up taking three, so slow was the progress on any of the cases its makers were following. Dooley deploys her natural talent for exuding a kind of stalwart sympathy as she interviews three women who all knew the men they say raped them, as they wait for their cases to be heard. Jessie (all the women have waived their right to anonymity and appear on camera) endured, she says, repeated unwanted sex from her much older boyfriend when she was a teenager. ('I would wake up with him inside me.') It is four years from the time of her reporting the rape to getting a verdict. In the meantime, he is out on bail and Jessie frequently sees him around town, and working near her house. Jessie's mother, Michelle, says that her daughter has become all but unrecognisable under the strain. 'She means everything to me, that girl, and I just want her back.' Jessie's is a rare case in that she has additional witnesses, including a former girlfriend of the defendant and another woman who each say he raped them too. Will three women's word against one man's be enough to win what one defence solicitor calls 'the credibility battle' in court? How much does it take to persuade a jury not just that you are telling the truth but to meet the required standard of proof – that the accused could have had no reasonable belief in consent? Emma says she was orally raped at 16 by a classmate in college. Until then, she says, she thought 'to be frozen with fear' was just an expression. 'You can't move. You don't believe it, but it's true.' Her mum persuaded her to report him to the police. The trial has been postponed three times. 'I've just got to do it because if not I'll regret it for the rest of my life … even though I'm dying inside.' She has been suicidal – a woman once intervened as she was attempting to kill herself. After that, Emma's father slept in a sleeping bag in front of the front door every night so they could keep her safe. In cross-examination, the defence suggests she has made the whole thing up because she was in love with the popular, wealthy accused. Emma is 19 before she gets a verdict. As she sobs uncontrollably in its wake, her mother puts her arms around her and stares dry-eyed into an incomprehensible future. Becca says she was raped by a man she was dating at university. 'I felt like I knew him, then in that moment I realised I didn't know him at all.' She waits three and a half years for the trial, before which she is advised by the witness service team to wear muted colours and keep her shoulders covered. The defence suggests that Becca, as a former drama student, has made up her story for effect. Dooley is the right person for the emotional parts – straightforward, unobtrusive and safe without being soft. But she is underpowered in the interviews with others, such as the deputy national lead on rape and serious sexual offences, Siobhan Blake, and defence lawyers who represent alleged rapists. It will, as Jessie – incandescent with fury alongside her misery – hopes, heighten awareness of the problems faced by claimants who enter this profoundly flawed system and the endemic biases that greet them from every quarter. But it is hard to admire a documentary that doesn't also move the conversation on. This could be done by proffering some possible answers to what can be done to redress inbred prejudices that accompany he said/she said trials in which there is no forensic or other evidence. Or by interviewing people who have some idea of what reforms can be made to the law, examining what difference further funding could make, or how we change a culture in which disbelief of rape claims is/seems to be the default position. . It is difficult to feel anything very much apart from profound admiration for the women involved, and the loving people who support them, and a profound despair at their suffering – and that which is still to come. Stacey Dooley: Rape on Trial aired on BBC Three and is on iPlayer. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at
Telegraph
11-03-2025
- Telegraph
Stacey Dooley: I wouldn't go to the police if I was raped
Stacey Dooley has said that she would not go the police if she was raped after losing confidence in the authorities. The television presenter, 38, made the claim after following stories of women's experiences with the courts and investigators for a new BBC documentary filmed over three years. In an interview with Radio Times, Dooley said: 'If somebody raped me, I don't think I would go to the police, which is so bleak and such a disappointing realisation. But in terms of what I've witnessed, I wouldn't feel confident.' Her comments come in the lead-up to the release of Rape on Trial, which explores the challenges of reporting rape and covers the delays to court cases and waiting times for victims of alleged rape and sexual assault. She said: 'With the women I spoke to, the concern was always: 'If I go to the police, will they believe me?' 'It's one of the few crimes where your credibility is immediately brought into question. The bravery it takes is unbelievable.' Dooley inspired by Pelicot case Dooley also addressed the extraordinary case of Gisèle Pelicot, who last year became a global icon in the campaign against sexual violence for her bravery in turning the tables on her tormentors after waiving her right to anonymity. 'Obviously, I think she's a f---ing powerhouse,' Dooley said, adding: 'But I wonder if even she really understands the magnitude of what she's done for other women.' In December, Pelicot's former husband, Dominique, 72, was found guilty of drugging and raping his former wife, also 72, and for more than a decade soliciting men to assault her. The grandmother of seven has since become a feminist icon for refusing to remain in the shadows during his trial, choosing instead to confront those who abused and raped her. Dooley said that when filming Rape on Trial, during which she would hear the experiences of women reporting rape to the police, it would make her think: 'What would I do?' The programme comes as it was revealed that rape charges are increasingly being dropped before reaching trial. The Crown Prosecution Service discontinued 496 rape charges in the 12 months to July this year – more than three times the 157 dropped in the same period in 2019. Rape prosecutions descrease Data released in December show that the proportion of rape prosecutions being dropped rose from 9.3 per cent in 2022 to 12.8 per cent this year. Dooley also spoke about another of her upcoming documentary shows, Meet the Shoplifters, in which she meets people who steal, as well as staff members dealing with the issue. She admitted that she took items from shops when she was young, saying she 'perhaps tried to justify it in some way' when she was a teenager, but now does not understand how she could have behaved that way. Last year, the Luton-born presenter made her acting stage debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story, and won Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 with her partner, Kevin Clifton, with whom she has a child.
