It’s easy to write off soap operas as fluff but people underestimate their power to raise awareness, which can change and even save lives.
One soap deserving plaudits right now is Coronation Street.
It has shown just how broken our policing and judiciary system is when it comes to reporting stalking and rape – highlighting two major struggles faced by many women today.
The stalking of Corrie’s Daisy Midgeley came to a shocking climax on her wedding day when her sick attacker threw acid at her. Ryan Connor jumped in front of her and was burnt instead.
Daisy had battled to be taken seriously by the police about the danger she felt but their response had been the same as in “real life”, saying they could not help “until he had done something”.
Corrie has worked with The Katie Piper Foundation to make the scenes authentic.
But, sadly, they not only brought back memories of the 2008 attack on brave Katie but also highlighted that all these years later women feeling threatened are still not taken seriously – until it’s too late.
It is pitiful that it takes a soap to hold up a mirror to the nation and show the inadequacies of our legal system.
In November, gynaecologist Dr Marie Gerval saw her jealous ex, who had fitted a tracking device to her car, get a 12- month restraining order and a 12-week curfew for stalking her. But only after her lawyer pressed police to reopen her case.
And in 2005 a stalker shot dead Clare Bernal, 22, at her Harvey Nichols store counter in London.
Michael Pech had plagued her with phone calls, texted her up to 50 times a day and followed her home every night. He was out on bail, having admitted stalking, when he killed her.
Elsewhere in Corrie, Amy Barlow finally plucked up the courage to report a rape to the police.
The scenes were a tough watch as she was quizzed by a male officer, despite asking for a woman, and was warned it would be a hard case to prove.
According to the charity Rape Crisis, one in four women have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult. And the highest number of rapes in a year was 70,633, from September 2021-22.
Yet in that time, only 2,616 were charged.
I was raped as a teen but I was met by such hostility after reporting it that I immediately dropped proceedings. It’s haunted me ever since.
I’ve also been stalked, via social media. My photos had been stolen and were being used on dating sites. The police and the apps in question were not interested as “nothing serious has happened yet”.
Only 5% of reports of stalking to the police in the year to March 2022 resulted in a charge by the CPS. Will I and all those other women have to live in fear until they finally take us seriously?
