At a court last week, a young victim of sexual assault finally appeared on the witness stand two years and seven months after she was attacked.
Hot food delivery driver Abdul Samad subjected the 20-year-old to a sustained sexual attack after misleading her into thinking he was her Uber.
He picked her up in a Glasgow street at 5am and repeatedly assaulted her as he casually drove his delivery route in July 2019.
He was found guilty of the attack but the night before he was due to appear in court, the bailed predator went on the run.
His victim had waited years for Samad to face justice but he has thus far evaded it.
So, why was he given bail?
After the attack, the young woman he attacked had to be prescribed antidepressants and sleeping tablets. She developed an eating disorder, which she had fought to get under control but it was re-triggered by the trauma of the court case.
The wait for the trial must have felt like an eternity. It was postponed multiple times and long before the Covid court backlog such cases were already taking years to be heard.
Little wonder so many victims are dropping out of court cases and deciding no justice is less painful than the agonising wait.
The questioning she had to endure under cross-examination on the witness stand was distressing to watch.
So, she had gone out at 7pm with friends in Glasgow’s west end, then on to a club and waited until it closed before she left? Then she went to a friend’s home and didn’t leave until 5am?
What was she drinking? Were those single vodka and cokes or doubles? Why did she go into a lonely street to pick up a taxi when her phone was flat?
Why when Samad dropped food off did she not scream or escape? There was no mention of the fact that victims often freeze.
The defence told her she was drunk that night, that when she was in the car with Samad she was so intoxicated, so erratic she sexually assaulted him.
So this victim had to protest she hadn’t sexually assaulted an overweight, middle-aged stranger within seconds of getting in his car.
She told the defence she had stopped drinking in the club at 1.45am, that she had walked into a lonely street with a flat phone in the early hours because she was panicking her parents would worry and she had work at 9am.
At every turn, this victim had to justify herself. She did not say she had every right to walk where she wanted and when, without the expectation she would be sexually assaulted.
Samad’s defence team were doing their job within a flawed system where it is effective to attempt to impugn the credibility of a victim in front of a jury.
In a recent government survey, a third of people said they believed a woman is at least partly to blame for being raped if she is drunk.
Rape myths are still prevalent among juries.
This 20-year-old was out having fun but was being painted as less worthy because she was drinking, out late, alone in a dark street and didn’t fight off her attacker.
The procurator fiscal asked how a victim should behave. Should she have “commando-rolled” out of the car?
A cross-justice review chaired by our second most senior judge, Lady Dorrian, is right to have recommended a specialist court for the most serious sexual offences, using trauma-informed procedures.
As long as rape myths prevail among juries we must also seriously consider judge-only trials for rape and sexual assault.
We must improve the experience of victims in the court system without compromising the rights of the accused.
It is not acceptable in a modern Scotland that women continue to be painted not as victims of sexual predators but of their own behaviour.
Test-kit move could backfire on us all
Boris Johnson, left, has announced the end of free mass testing in England as part of his “living with Covid” plan.
Unfortunately when it comes to Covid, to live responsibly with a virus, it is essential to know you have it.
In order to monitor the spread of Covid and react to mass outbreaks, it’s crucial testing continues.
The Scottish Government wants PCRs and lateral flow tests to remain free in Scotland, which is the right step. But we need a unified front by all four nations in the UK against a virus which does not recognise borders.
Johnson said the country couldn’t afford the £2billion it has spent on testing but if Tory cronies hadn’t been given contracts, the costs wouldn’t have been so exorbitant.
Fraud and government incompetence from a loan scheme to help businesses cope with the pandemic could cost the British taxpayer up to £27billion, so that puts testing costs into perspective. As usual, Johnson is motivated by his own self-interest and pandering to his populist base.
Thousands of doctors have written to the Government and demanded he explain the scientific logic for his laissez faire approach. We are not holding our breath for a response.
