40 years ago Parliament substantially revised the law surrounding rape. Crime & Punishment: A Timewatch Guide, BBC 2019
This film proved shocking in the apparently heartless treatment of a woman who had gone to the police saying she’d been raped by three men. BBC filmmakers were allowed to follow officers of the Thames Valley police … ‘Officers in this case are bullying and cajoling this woman’ … The film caused outrage. ibid.
Little has changed for victims. ibid.
In 2015, Renata Singleton, an accountant in New Orleans, arrived at court in an orange jumpsuit, shackled at her hands and feet. But unlike the other inmates she was chained to, Singleton, a mother of three, hadn’t been accused of any crime. She was still jailed five days earlier on a $100,000 bond because the local district attorney obtained a warrant arguing that her detention was necessary to force her to testify against her ex-boyfriend, who was facing charges for abusing her. He came to court in his own clothes, pleaded guilty, and received no jail time. Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones online article 19 April 2019, ‘Should Rape Victims Have to Spend Time in Jail for Not Testifying?’
Sometimes it’s fun to just go wild and rape a hundred girls. The Warwick Uni Rape Chat Scandal, social media, BBC 2019
Which girl at Uni would you like to pin down the most? ibid.
The pure unadulterated misogyny that runs through that I would never class as banter. ibid. Dianne Whitfield, Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre
11 Warwick students temporarily suspended after group chat exposed. ibid. The Boar 8th May 2019, Warwick uni newspaper
In 2017 an 18-year-old went public with allegations that shook the country. Anna Chambers polarised opinion and seemed to draw attention to an under-reported problem: police sex crime. For two years she turned down many interview offers. Abused by the Police? ***** BBC 2019
She was brought up in this working-class neighbourhood near Coney Island. The park where the alleged attack happened is just around the corner. ibid.
‘He pulled my head to his dick and just making me blow him … and just shoved it inside of me. I was just screaming … The black guy … was just looking in the mirror … like it was nothing … They just left me there. ibid.
Back home her dad sent her to hospital to do a rape test. A nurse alerted the police. ibid.
DNA was found on Anna’s body. A DNA test confirmed a positive match with the semen of NYD detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins. ibid.
After two weeks no arrests have been made. ibid.
‘The case of a women who says she was raped in the back of a police van is drawing attention to an apparent loop-hole in some state laws that may allow police to escape sexual assault charges by claiming sex acts were consensual.’ ibid. television news
One case in particular catches my attention: I found another case with a woman in Chicago. She says she was raped by two police officers after a night out drinking. It seems to have striking similarities to Anna Chambers. Two on-duty police officers and a DNA match. ibid.
The investigation went on for three years … Eventually, the officers were offered a plea deal: they accepted one count of official misconduct in exchange for two years probation and dropping the sexual assault charges. ibid.
In 2016 more than a dozen Oakland police officers for sexual misconduct involving an under-age girl. ibid.
‘You run the risk of being exiled. They vandalised your car, your home. You may receive physical threats … We had cops who had 20 or 30 complaints against them for brutality, for stealing, for planting evidence, and nothing ever happens to them. And they’re not afraid; they’re not afraid of Internal Affairs … I can recall complaints where sex workers were coerced into performing sex acts on an officer to avoid going to jail. There were some sex workers who complained that officers harassed them. There were cases where sex workers were sexually assaulted, raped, robbed, and officers and detectives wouldn’t take their complaint seriously. Or would threaten them with jail.’ ibid. Internal affairs insider
Mary Kay Letourneau did the unthinkable when she had sex and a baby with a 13-year-old sixth grade student. He was her student in the sixth grade. When the boy was 13 the relationship turned sexual. Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography, CI 2019
1997: Mary Kay Letourneau, a gifted 35-year-old Seattle teacher, married mother of four, plead guilty to two counts of child rape. ibid.
‘20+ years and little has changed: she still loves Billy and feels that this is the guy she wants to be with.’ ibid. commentator
31st March 2001, Roydon, Essex: 05:48 a.m.: ‘A geezer’s drowned in the pool … There’s a party going on and someone’s just gone out and found him … fucking hell. You don’t expect it, do ya?’ Barrymore: The Body in the Pool, 999 call, Channel 4 2020
31-year-old Stuart Lubbock was found floating in the swimming pool at Mr Barrymore’s home in Essex; he died soon after. ibid. TV news
Just another night that went terribly wrong. ibid. Barrymore
I don’t think we really had him down as being gay. ibid. ex-Sun reporter
At 2:47 a party starts at Michael Barrymore’s house: there are nine people present. At 5:08 emergency services are called. ibid. caption
The immediate assumption for everybody was that the victim was gay. Because who the hell would go home with Michael Barrymore and a group of young men? It certainly seemed to be a pretty nasty gay poolside party. ibid. reporter
There was no third party involved in the death … This was a case of immersion, as I call it, or drowning … I would describe the injuries to the anus as horrific. ibid. pathologist
This may not be drowning and you should be aware of that. ibid. pathologist #2 to rozzers
The Essex Police investigation into Stuart Lubbock’s death concludes with no criminal charges. A coroner’s inquest is held to determine the cause of death. ibid. captions
The entertainer Michael Barrymore has refused to answer questions about alleged drug taking at his home on the night a man was found dead in his swimming pool. ibid. BBC news
Stuart had been the victim of a serious sexual assault. ibid. pathologist
Do you ever want to see Michael Barrymore on television again. Yes 090 190 44 41 No 090 190 44 42. ibid. Richard & Judy Show phone-in
Essex Police launch an investigation into Michael Barrymore’s public claims that Stuart Lubbock’s anal injuries were inflicted at the hospital after his death. ibid. caption
Stuart was assaulted quite possibly in the jacuzzi … To make it look like a drowning thrown in the swimming pool. I believe very much that Stuart Lubbock was raped and murdered that night. ibid.
Does she live alone? Does she have a room-mate? Does she have a boyfriend? Burglarizing their home: going through their personal possessions serve his fantasy that this is actually a consensual relationship and he is getting to know them. Very Scary People: Norcal Rapist I: Phantom Predator, expert, CI 2020
The Norcal Rapist terrorised northern California from 1991 to 2006. His cruel violence causing lasting trauma, tragically altering lives. This twisted deviant studies his victims, their patterns, their habits, he slips into their homes when they are away, memorising the rooms and planning his ambush. Illusive and careful, for a long time it seemed like Norcal was unstoppable. But he left key evidence at every scene. ibid
‘Stalking is an obsessive and compulsive activity where somebody delved into private matters … they create a world in their own mind.’ ibid. shrink
‘Now not only have I been inside your body, I’m getting inside of your bank account … Even after I’ve left, I’m going to victimise you.’ ibid.
The Norcal Rapist wears a ski-mask, he is armed with knives and guns, he makes each woman his prisoner, the torture lasting for hours on end. The Norcal Rapist is a stalker, a meticulous planner, but he has made some mistakes. Very Scary People: Norcal Rapist: Phantom Predator II
‘The fantasies never stop. They’re still going on in his head.’ ibid. criminologist
‘I don’t want to stand up here and tell the world I’m a rape victim. But then I told myself this is something I have to do, because this guy is a serial rapist.’ ibid.
But advances in DNA technology called Investigative Genetic Genealogy offer hope for investigators in solving the 27-year old case. ibid.
Roy Charles Waller: he is 58 years old, he is a white male … and has worked at UC Berkeley for the last 25 years. ibid.
Barroom Rape Trial: ‘A young woman who was gang-raped on a bar-room pool table while patrons cheered: six men were charged.’ Trial By Media s1e5: Big Dan’s, television news, Netflix 2020
I think the narcotic pull for me is what I think of as the powerful absence that haunts an unsolved crime. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark I: Murder Habit, Michelle McNamara reporting, Sky Crime 2020
In search of a man I’d never met who raped and murdered people I didn’t know. In 1977 the Golden State Killer, as I’d come to call him, hadn’t yet graduated to murder … They called him the East Area Rapist. He always wore a mask. ibid.
The terror began on June 18th 1976 when a masked man raped a young woman home alone. ibid.
When I walked into the house I had a feeling. The hair on the back of my neck felt like it was just standing up. ibid. Larry Compton, ex-rozzer