Survivor’s text abuse case taken to Parliament as campaign for law reform continues

A survivor first approached me when researching my book Exposed – the rise of extreme porn and how we fight back about how her father had been sharing sexually explicit stories online about abusing her, but he had not been prosecuted. Together, we brought her experience to wider attention, working with parliamentarians including Baroness Bertin and the End Violence Against Women coalition to press for legal reform. Unfortunately, the Government declined to act, with serious questions remaining about how the existing law is interpreted and how seriously we are taking this form of abuse.

Although reform has not yet been secured, the campaign continues, with the case now receiving wider public attention in a feature in The Guardian. And this is not the end. Emily, her mother and those of us working alongside them will continue to press for greater recognition of the harms involved and for law and policy that properly respond to them.

Read Harriet Grant’s feature in The Guardian: “Police arrived to arrest her father for sexual abuse. But he was making it all up.” 

Read my LinkedIn post about Emily’s case and the campaign for legal reform.