Post-trial

There are many resources available for you during the post-trial period. Here are a few resources you are able to access.

1. Counselling is available from Rape Crisis and on the NHS.

• Potential services include: talk therapy; as well as group work, body work, or art therapy.

• Ages: Rape Crisis Centres different age limits in regards to their counselling services, beginning with adults; teenagers either 16 or 13; some will also see children.

• For who? 50% of registered Rape Crisis Centres will offer counselling services to male survivors. Some will also see parents, partners, or other supporters.

1. Monetary compensation can be claimed if reported to police, even in cases without knowing the identity of the abuser.

• Includes: Cases of both physical and psychological injuries, whether or not your abuser was convicted.

• How much? Pay ranges from £1,000 to £500,000, according to your injuries.

• Time frame: Attack must have happened within the past two years, in either England, Scotland or Wales. The two-year limit may be waived in some circumstances, commonly in cases of sexual assault or abuse.

• Contact: By phone, e-mail, or in-person: in an office, or solicitors can come to your home and meet you with family.

• Important: If the abuser has been charged you might want to consider waiting for compensation until after the trial because no decision will be taken or money awarded until your trial is over. Applications for compensation may be used against you on the stand.

1. Medical care is offered by your local Emergency Department, a sexual health clinic, by the Havens in London (020 3299 1599), or your General Practitioner (GP).

Source:

Rights of Women

Date checked: 31.05.2020

If your abuser(s) were sentenced to prison for at least 12 months for a sexual or violent offense, the National Probation Service (NPS) should contact you and invite you to join the Victim Contact Scheme.

A representative from the Victim Contact Scheme will give you information about the abuser(s)' sentence and release, such as what type of sentence they were given, whether the abuser(s) are applying for release, what conditions they will be required to meet on release. You will not be told where the abuser(s) are serving their sentence, but you can request to be told if they are being moved to an open prison.

After serving their prison sentence, the abuser(s) will be required to obey certain conditions, called 'license conditions', for a certain amount of time. These conditions may include things like attending regular meetings with the probation service or restrictions on the abuser(s)' movements. If the abuser(s) break the terms of their license conditions, or they commit another offense, they may be sent back to prison.

You may express your views about your abuser(s)' license conditions through your representative at the Victim Contact Scheme. If you opt-out of the Victim Contact Scheme, you can rejoin at any time by contacting your local Probation Service.

Contact your local Probation Service

Victim Contact Scheme

Source:

Rights of Women

Date checked: 14.06.2020

There are a few measures that can be put in place to keep you safe from your abuser(s) and/or their family and friends after trial.

Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO):

In addition to the length and type of sentence the judge decides to impose, the court may also issue a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) against the abuser. A SOPO can be made in either type of court. This Order imposes a number of restrictions on the offender's behaviour, including where they can travel, where they can go, and other measures to protect the public. If the abuser breaks the terms laid out in their SOPO, they can be prosecuted. A SOPO can have a set length with a minimum of 5 years or can be imposed with an indefinite length.

Sex Offender Register:

After being convicted, your abuser will be placed on the Sex Offender Register for a certain length of time (usually 15 years for adult abusers and 8 years for underage abuse). If they've received a sentence of longer than 30 months, their name will remain on the register for life.

The Sex Offender Register is not publicly available. But under the Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, also known as 'Sarah's Law', members of the public may ask the police whether a specific individual was convicted of a sexual offense against a child.

Should your abuser apply to be removed from the register, you'll have the right to submit a statement which will be considered while evaluating the abuser's application. If you would like to be notified if / when the abuser makes an application to be removed from the register, contact your local police station fill out the attached form.

Find your local police force (to submit statement)

Sources:

Rights of Women - Community protections

GOV UK Sex offenders register, rights of the survivor

Sentencing Council on SOPOs (previously called Sexual Harm Prevention Orders)

Date checked: 14.06.2020

Although defendants have the right to appeal convictions — especially if they believe their trial or sentence was unjust — victims generally do not. If you are concerned about the sentence delivered in your trial is too lenient, you can contact the Director of Public Prosecutions within 28 DAYS of the sentence being imposed. You'll have to make your request in writing or through a legal or public representative.

If you'd like help evaluating whether the sentence in your case was too lenient (according to the law) take a look at the guidelines used by the Sentencing Council in the UK. WARNING: these are particularly hard to read, but may prove useful should you decide to contest the sentence given to the defendant in your case.

You can use this link as a reference: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/sexual-assault.

Sources:

NI Direct

CPS

Date checked: 14.06.2020

Restorative processes bring those harmed by crime or conflict, and those responsible for the harm, into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward.

Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm, be a voluntary process, safe and accessible, with impartial facilitators, and respect for all participants.

The ways that this happens can include survivor-abuser mediation, restorative conferencing, family group conferencing, survivor-abuser groups and sentencing/peace-making circles.

Restorative Justice can help the survivor:

• Learn about the abuser and put a face to the crime.

• Ask questions of the abuser.

• Express their feelings and needs after the crime.

• Receive an apology and/or appropriate reparation.

• Educate abusers about the effects of their offences.

• Sort out any existing conflicts.

• Be part of the criminal justice process.

• Put the crime behind them.

The main concern is for the safety of survivors, particularly in a situation of power imbalance, where the abuser has already held unaccountable power in terms of violence. This unequal situation also puts pressure on survivors, who may fear the worst if they do not go along with their partner or ex-partner’s suggestions during mediation.

The other concern is the public aspect. Many support groups feel that restorative justice will be seen as a ‘soft option’, trivialising serious offences. It is not so long since domestic violence was regarded as a private affair, and these groups fear that the lack of public accountability will set back the progress made in recent years in bringing domestic violence ‘out of the closet’.

Restorative Justice can help put things right and prevent further occasions of violence when the abuse is ‘situational couple violence’ in a single or in several events – these situations are specific events where things have escalated and violence has occurred.

A much longer-term issue and less suitable for a restorative approach is when the abuse is part of systematic coercive control.

Source:

Penal Reform

Date checked: 27.05.2020

As with the decision to press charges, the decision to reunify a family after conviction is deeply personal. A number of individuals — including psychological and medical professionals, social workers and legal advocates — can help you assess whether reunification is a good option in your specific circumstances. They will also likely accompany you through the reunification process if you decide to pursue it.

If everyone IN your family agrees that reunification would be beneficial FOR everyone in your family, the process may follow these general steps:

1. Treatment for everyone (you, the abuser(s) and your family members). This treatment, or access to services intended to help you heal, might include things like medical visits, sessions with a therapist or meetings with social workers. Treatment will vary depending on your specific situation.

2. Assessment of readiness. Generally speaking, a readiness assessment involves working with professionals to determine how ready you are to participate in a reunification. You may be asked to talk about how you are feeling about your abuse and how your feelings have changed over time.

3. Clarification. During clarification, you and family members will discuss your understanding of the abuse you have endured with the person, or people, who abused you.

4. Safety planning. A safety plan, created to reflect your family's unique strengths, patterns, risk actors and warning signals of abuse is designed to help you and your family safe through reunification. It may include things like initial supervised visits within a clinical setting.

5. Reconnection and/or reunification. With a robust safety plan in place, and once everyone involved feels ready, you will begin to reunify your family. This may, eventually, include living together again in the same household but everyone's reunification is unique.

Remember, if everyone in your family is not in agreement about reunifying — or even if you start the reunification process — you are under NO obligation to finish it.

Source:

NSVRC

Checked: 14.06.2020