How far we have to go...
Before I write anything else tonight (and believe me have some stuff to say - screams of joy are much better than silences of despair), I want to talk about Jacqueline Howat. She said that a police recruit (who has name suppression) raped her. He has just been found not guilty, after the judge told the jury to consider the credibility of the witnesses.
The subtext of the defence was, she did too much drugs, she had too much sex, she couldn't tell you who attacked and raped her.
The man is applying to re-enter police college - I'm not feeling any safer.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI just stumbled onto the news about this case tonight - addressed in post, Gee, why is it women and youth in the sex trade won’t trust law enforcement*? - and would be interested to know if you've heard anything new about the case. (I'm in Richmond, Virginia in the U.S., so you're obviously a lot closer to the relevant news sources here, though I've dug up some stuff online.) I understand the police recruit was found not guilty, but is still seeking to restart his police career - a notion so infuriating to me I don't know where to begin. Most maddening of all to me, though, is the fact that he gets to remain anonymous.
In any event, I applaud the bravery of Jacqueline Howat for at least pursuing the charges. That had to be a rough situation. I hope she is able to recover from this travesty.
Best regards - Victoria
Not really. This case got swamped with a more profile case (which had a better result). I imagine we won't hear anything more about it. The coverage made me so angry. Although the radio journalist coverage did a passably ok job.
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