We need to talk about how the British justice system is failing survivors of sexual violence. Stacey Dooley’s two part documentary for the BBC Rape on Trial is a call to action, as four women waive their right to life-long anonymity to raise awareness of their experiences – like thousands of other survivors’ – of seeking justice for rape.
Jessie. Becca. Lauren. Emma. Four names amongst the thousands of other women who report being raped. Nearly 70,000 rapes were reported to police between October 2023 and September 2024. The reality is this: women you know and love, women you work with are victims of this crime. Your friends. Your exes. You know these women, but you may not realise it.
Rape Crisis England and Wales describes sexual violence as a societal issue, akin to a ‘pandemic’, with 1 in 4 women, since the age they turned 16, having been raped or sexually assaulted. Let that sink in: 1 in 4 women.
How do we as a society ensure that the justice system investigates, prosecutes, and punishes those perpetrators? Dooley’s Rape on Trial explores this, and finds that women are routinely made to wait years for their case to go in front of a judge. That wait is too long to bear for some, as the numbers of victims withdrawing from their cases has more than doubled in the last five years.
Despite this there has been a surge in the number of cases brought to court, with over 30 per cent increase in the number of rape cases charged and sent to trial by the Crown Prosecution System. Complainants of sexual violence wait an average of 2 years wait from the day of reporting to trial.
“I’m now not just a victim of that situation, I’m a victim of the system as well,” Jessie, one of the women interviewed for Rape on Trial says. While another, Becca, reports that the waiting is a “hellish experience” and “almost too much to bear.”
Jessie says she was raped in her sleep by her ex-boyfriend. Later, another ex-girlfriend of the defendant, Lauren, will contact her to tell her she has also been raped. A third woman, who does not waive her anonymity, also comes forward.
Four years pass from the moment of Jessie reporting to her final trial. The first time it goes to court, the jury can’t decide and return a hung jury result. However, Jessie is not deterred and opts to pursue a retrial. In January 2025, the retrial jury takes just three hours to return their verdict.
For juries to convict, they have to be absolutely sure beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. In this case of he-said-she-said, there were three testimonies from women alleging rape versus one. She said, then another said, and then another again, but still there is no justice.
Rape on Trial also follows another woman, Emma, and her pursuit of justice. She says she was raped while on a college campus. From the moment of reporting, she waited three years for her day in court.
Emma is also worried about not being believed and the stress of reliving her trauma in front of a court room: “Do they think I’m just the girl who cried wolf? It’s just my word against his.” She tells the viewer that defendant in this case “was friends with everybody. Everybody liked him.”
Dooley also explores the case of a student, Becca, who was raped by her ex-boyfriend while at university. They had had consensual sex earlier in the night, but when she later said no, he didn’t stop. He bit her, laughing as she said no. Becca tells the interviewer: “I felt I knew him and in that moment I realised I don’t really know [him] at all.”
Throughout, there is a onus on the complainant, on what they say and how they dress. Becca wants to “make the right impression in court,” so she is wary of wearing nothing too low cut, nothing that may ride up her legs as she sits down, nothing too bright and distracting. Lauren also echoes this, as she chooses something understated for her court appearance, so “people look at [her] as the person who is saying [her] truth.”
Feminism operates in waves of movements for tangible change to better the lives of women. In recent years, we’ve seen online social media awash with ‘I believe her’ content, but how does that translate to the court room?
Jessie, during her first trial, says that the barrister cross-examining her on the stand asked if she said no, if she put up a fight. ‘She was trying to make out to the jury that I didn’t say no, so that means yes,’ Jessie tells the camera.
Dooley speaks to defence barrister Ramya Nagesh about the aggressive approach to cross-examining survivors. She says: “It’s better to have someone who is guilty acquitted wrongly than innocent and being convicted wrongly. Because the consequences of a rape conviction case are so huge.”
The victim’s testimony and their bodies are the evidence in many cases. In these he-said-she-said cases, Dooley asks how jurors can make a decision beyond all reasonable doubt. It’s an incredibly difficult position to be in, and one which society must do better to secure justice for survivors of sexual violence.
Jessie’s words at the close of the final episode is an inspiring call to action. She says she reported to police, went to trial and then again for a retrial for “the next woman, the woman after me, and the woman before me.” She is not alone. None of these women in the show are. They are the beginning of a new wave of women not willing to back down even as the judicial system fails them and others time and time again. It’s time for change.
If you have been affected by this story, contact Rape Crisis England & Wales for free confidential support and information on 08088029999 or their website or 08088010302 if you’re calling from Scotland.
