Humberside Police revictimisation of a rape and DV Victim

September 9, 2015, No one's victim, Personal Experiences,

This is my story of dialling 999 to Humberside Police and having the situation completely turned around on me by them. What they have done to me is at least as bad as the initial crime's and I am telling my story to both warn other woman and hopefully to get sufficient publicity to get change

I am a" typical "domestic violence victim, younger than my husband, he was outgoing confident person , the funny man, I was an introvert lacking self esteem. I endured many years of violence ,exacerbated by being part of a faith group who enabled him to continue in his behaviour . I also did not label what was happening to me as domestic violence , I simply survived petrified.

In 2011 I finally had enough and escaped, I moved into my own home and gradually broke ties with him. In November 2011 I once again reported him to the police in a 999 call after he yet again pinned me against a wall with his hands around my neck. He later that day forced entry into my home through my kitchen door and after this I had the courage to talk about incidents that happened before. Humberside Police did not check their database , or ask whether I felt suicidal or if I had been sexually assaulted, they failed to take any physical evidence or interview witnesses to the assault. They let him go and I said that I wanted to commit suicide, from that moment I was labelled as mental and have not been taken seriously since and in fact revictimsed. They actually GAVE him the key to my house where he removed evidence, whilst I was not there.

I was referred to DVAP East Riding Council's domestic violence support service, who initially supported me then not only withdrew support but gave me a going over at the "Freedom Programme" when a third party professional told them that I was not in fact the victim. I gave Humberside Police evidence of this and it was ignored and I was referred back to the third party's employer.

I naively complained to the police , they did not want to know. I described in detail what had happened to me including sexual assault to the Detective Inspector of the Public Protection Unit in an email ,which I had not had the courage to tell about before, it was ignored. I then phoned up to say it was actually rape, the officer said they did not deal with historic rape( this was before the Jimmy Saville revelations). I then got hysterical during a related meeting started shouting I was a domestic violence and rape victim, the officer attending did not check the police database, listened to the rapist who said i was mental and issued me with a letter before ASBO proceedings, I tried again about a month later and attended my local rape crisis centre, who did listen and the police attended and made an appointment to interview me.

Happy ending then? No they still didn't take me seriously, they failed to take witness statements from two woman who were prepared to tell about my ex partners controlling behaviour, they failed to follow up medical evidence I ended up chasing it up myself, they did not refer me to victim support ,they failed to update me and did not tell me when the investigation ended. They did not tell me about criminal injury compensation.

I went back to the complaint's procedure, even though I had written evidence that the police officers had ignored my allegations of rape , my complaint was not upheld and as the complaint was classified as a management and control matter I could not appeal to the IPCC.

HMIC in 2014 inspected Humberside Police , they found that if a victim either had a mental health condition or allegedly had one they failed to record ,( no crimed)or investigate a number of crimes properly including rape. http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/crime-data-integrity-humberside-2014.pdf

Can you please help me? I need publicity to stop these discriminatory bigots from revictimising more woman. The rapist still lives in my neighbourhood and works with children , which he did all the way through the rape inquiry. The IPCC will investigate if I can get my story into the public domain, please spread it.I am mentally well and am looking forward to seeing my story used to as part of the campaign to stop victim blaming.

Rape and Domestic Violence victims do not deserve to be blamed for having the courage to speak out

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