A government adviser on rape has said she is leaving the role due to a “lack of will to continue to change” in the criminal justice system, citing myths about the crime perpetuated at the highest levels of the civil service.
Emily Hunt said she was leaving the UK to return to America because she does not feel safe.
Hunt became an independent adviser to the government’s rape review in 2021 and was part of the successful implementation of an around-the-clock sexual abuse helpline and has been a champion of Operation Soteria Bluestone, which has exposed failures in the criminal justice system and pushes a suspect-focused approach to catching rapists.
On Thursday, she told Channel 4 News she does not feel confident in reporting a crime to police after her own five-year legal battle with the Crown Prosecution Service.
In 2020 Christopher Killick, who filmed Hunt naked in a hotel room in east London, was given a 30-month community order for voyeurism. He admitted he had recorded the footage in 2015 for his sexual gratification.
Killick was initially arrested on suspicion of rape but police dropped the case because they could not find sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation.
In March this year, Killick, 43, admitted breaching a restraining order preventing him from contacting Hunt.
On the reasons for her decision to not reapply for the advisory role when the term ends, Hunt told Channel 4 News: “I don’t really feel like there is a purpose to my staying.
“I go to meetings and say the things over and over and nothing happens.
“I had somebody pull a list of the ways I impacted the rape review. The 24/7 hotline for victims, suspect-focused investigations, better support and funding for victims – we got all these things done.
“Now I have lists of things I have suggested and asked for and none of them have happened.
“It seems there is a lack of will to continue to change.”
She added: “I would go to work and hear about how things were improving for victims of crime.
“How the Victim and Witness Room at that court [I attended] was being refurbished. I was there, it hadn’t been.
“It was so dispiriting. I was at those meetings about how things were getting better; I would experience the opposite.”
The New York-born former PR executive said she believes the rape review had been a success, citing the CPS reaching the targets of pre-2016 level of prosecutions 18 months early.
But she added that within the civil service she had encountered people who had myths about rape such as “Maybe her skirt was too short, maybe she was drinking”.
In response, the Ministry of Justice told Channel 4 News: “We thank Emily Hunt for her valuable work over the past two years, supporting the government in exceeding all three ambitions of the rape review ahead of schedule.
“We remain determined to stamp out these appalling crimes, making sure the criminal justice system supports victims and holds perpetrators to account.”
