Dr Charlotte Proudman tells ITV News that three years for two counts of rape “cannot represent justice”
Speaking to ITV News about the Teesside rape case, founder of Proudmans and barrister, Dr Charlotte Proudman said three years for two counts of rape cannot represent justice when the teenage victims suffered severe violence and subsequent trauma.
The case centres on Sam Brewster, convicted of two counts of rape against teenage girls in Teesside, Cleveland. He will serve just three years in prison. This sentence does not reflect the serious harm inflicted on the victims and sends the message that boys can get away with rape.
It took more than two years for Brewster to be sentenced because he appealed his convictions after the original trial. On appeal, both convictions were upheld, but both victims had to give evidence, reliving their ordeals, and endure cross-examination all over again. One of the victims told ITV that she questioned whether it was worth putting herself through it again for Brewster only to receive three years.
The victims' families say they would like the sentence to be appealed because it is “unduly lenient”.
Proudmans have been calling for sentencing in sexual violence and rape cases to be overhauled since the Hampshire rape case, where HHJ Rowland let two teenage rapists walk free because he wanted to “avoid criminalising” them.
Proudmans supported “Jazmine”, one of the teenage rape survivors, through the appeal of her rapists' sentences on a pro bono basis.
Jazmine was “traumatised” by her five-and-a-half-week rape trial and said giving evidence of the attack was “humiliating and painful”. No rape survivor should have to give evidence at their trial more than once, as the girls in the Teesside case had to.
These cases highlight the need for robust sentencing guidelines for rape and sexual violence cases, rather than leaving sentencing to a judge's discretion.
Rape trials and appeal processes can be deeply traumatising, and that is why Proudmans is calling for justice system reform for sexual violence cases that centres the lives and experiences of victims. Jazmine, her family, and Dr Proudman recently met with the Attorney General to discuss these much-needed reforms.
Dr Charlotte Proudman is an advocate for survivors of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based abuse. She founded Proudmans, a specialist family law firm, which supports survivors of rape and sexual abuse who report to the police and go through criminal trials with unfaltering advocacy.
Comments