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sexual assault

Victims of Sexual Assault Fleeing Western Criminal Justice Systems

by faeze mohammadi August 3, 2025

At the heart of Western societies that claim to defend human rights and gender equality, the criminal justice system has become a nightmare for victims of sexual assault, forcing many women to abandon their pursuit of justice.

Shocking statistics from the UK reveal that over 180 sexual assault victims have faced delays of up to two years in the processing of their cases. This is just the tip of the iceberg in a crisis that leaves victims isolated—not only in their confrontation with perpetrators but also in their struggle against a paralyzing judicial system.

Systemic Failure or Structural Injustice?

In the UK, a country that prides itself on being a leader in women’s rights, victims of sexual assault, after enduring the initial trauma, face a wave of distrust in the judicial system. Studies show that more than 60% of specialized lawyers refuse to take on sexual assault cases due to meager compensation. The result? Victims wait years for their day in court, only to eventually succumb to psychological exhaustion and drop their cases.

From Indifferent Investigators to Secondary Victimization

Police conduct in many Western countries is not only unsupportive but, according to researchers, has become a factor in secondary victimization—a term in criminology referring to the harm inflicted on victims by law enforcement and judicial institutions. Victims of assault are often forced to repeatedly recount the details of their attack to officers who are either inadequately trained or approach the case with gender biases. In some instances, police have even cast doubt on victims’ claims, pressuring them to withdraw their complaints.

Exploiting Public Sentiment for Political Gain

While Western media frequently cite sexual assault statistics to project a feminist image, the same outlets fall silent or sensationalize victims’ lives when it comes to offering real support. The consequence? Many women choose silence over facing societal judgment and an ineffective legal system.

The Inefficiency of Western Criminal Justice

The judicial systems in countries like the UK and the US are entangled in endless bureaucracy and legal formalities rather than focusing on victims’ needs. While sexual assault cases demand urgent and trauma-sensitive handling, some are delayed for up to five years. Are these systemic delays accidental, or part of an institutionalized design that refuses to treat sexual assault as a serious crime?

What Is the Solution?

As long as Western criminal justice systems scrutinize victims instead of punishing perpetrators, as long as police lack proper training in handling sexual assault cases sensitively, and as long as lawyers lack financial incentive to defend victims, this vicious cycle will continue. Perhaps it’s time to allocate substantial budgets to training judges and police, establishing specialized sexual assault response units, and streamlining judicial processes—rather than empty feminist slogans. But in the West, it seems the performance of justice matters more than its actual execution.

Analytical Report by Jahān-Bānū, from BBC

August 3, 2025 0 comment

North America

Hollywood Producer Faces Retrial on Sexual Assault Charges

by faeze mohammadi April 24, 2025

Jury selection has begun for the retrial of Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood producer accused of rape and sexual assault in New York. The trial comes one year after his 2020 conviction was overturned. Weinstein, who denies all charges, faces one count of rape and two counts of unlawful sexual acts in this case.

Weinstein’s 2020 trial, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence, was seen as a landmark moment for the global #MeToo movement. However, a New York appeals court overturned the conviction last year, citing judicial errors, and ordered a new trial.

In addition to the current allegations, Weinstein is now confronting a new charge tied to an alleged assault of a woman in 2006. The disgraced producer, who uses a wheelchair in court due to health issues, remains incarcerated. Over 100 women have accused him of sexual misconduct, though he has consistently denied any non-consensual acts.

The retrial has reignited public scrutiny over sexual abuse cases in Hollywood and the judicial system’s response to the #MeToo era. Prosecutors aim to secure another conviction by presenting victim testimonies and fresh evidence. Meanwhile, Weinstein’s defense team argues he is the victim of a media-driven “trial by publicity.”

The jury selection, conducted under heightened security, could take weeks. The outcome will not only determine Weinstein’s fate but also set a precedent for how similar high-profile cases are handled in the future.

Reuters

April 24, 2025 0 comment

Europe

Rape against refugee women in the UK

by faeze mohammadi November 12, 2024

The UK asylum system is retraumatising women and girls who have fled rape and sexual abuse and putting them at risk of further harm, leading charities have said.

Sexual violence and abuse is often a major driver for women to leave their country of origin, as well as a common experience on their journey to the UK, but when they get here they are failed, according to Rape Crisis England and Wales (RCEW) and Imkaan.

In their report, titled Not Safe Here, published on Thursday, the charities said women have been retraumatised by asylum interviews akin to interrogations; sharing mixed-sex accommodation, including bedrooms, with unrelated men; poor living conditions and lack of support. Some had faced further sexual violence and abuse while living in asylum accommodation, it said.

Makena*, a survivor of sexual violence and exploitation who is from Sierra Leone, said of her accommodation: “I was scared of the people that I was living with … I was so scared that I was going to be raped, I was scared that I was going to be forced to take drugs, I was scared that they were going to open my door at night … I used to pray every time to God, ‘Please God, get me out of this house.’ It was so traumatising, it was so scary. It was the most scary seven months in my life.”

The charities said they heard of predatory residents and staff who subjected women seeking asylum to intimidation, harassment, racism, violence and abuse, as well as external perpetrators who were able to easily target vulnerable residents. Such behaviour was facilitated by seemingly inadequately trained staff, ineffective safeguarding, vetting, complaints and misconduct processes, and a lack of access to support for women who wished to complain, the report claimed.

Researchers spoke with four professionals working in the sector, as well as eight women with experience of sexual violence and abuse and living in UK asylum accommodation. Each of the survivors four of whom had been granted asylum at the time of writing said they were not believed by Home Office decision-makers.

Josephine*, who is from an Indigenous minority ethnic group violently targeted by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria, said: “I was refused because I was not able to get the evidence of [my daughter’s] circumcision. I said I did not remember the date my daughter was circumcised. So, it’s assumed that I’m lying. I tried my best to get it [the evidence]. So, because of it, I was denied and I was asked to go back to Nigeria.”

The charities said the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 penalised women for delays in making a claim, as well as for the late submission of evidence in support of it, disregarding factors – such as “shame, discomfort or fear” which can make survivors reticent to disclose sexual violence.

Ciara Bergman, the chief executive officer at RCEW, said: “For anyone to be sexually assaulted, intimidated or exploited at any time in their life is a travesty, and for these experiences to then be repeated and compounded in a system which is both detaining and responsible for protecting them is a scandal.”

Ghadah Alnasseri, an interim co-executive director at Imkaan, said: “Our findings underline the urgent need for reform, emphasising the necessity of safe housing, comprehensive and specialist support services, and vigorous accountability measures.”

Among other recommendations are abolishing the “no recourse to public funds” policy, which the report said forced women with refused asylum claims into destitution, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to delivering an asylum process that is gender sensitive building on the wider government strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. “We work carefully to ensure that the needs and vulnerabilities of those residing in asylum accommodation are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.”

Guardian

November 12, 2024 0 comment

North America

Sexual assault of an American security officer

by faeze mohammadi September 25, 2024

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for drugging, sexually assaulting and filming more than two dozen women in multiple countries over more than a decade.

Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, of La Mesa California, was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, pay $260,000 in restitution to the victims and register as a sex offender after leaving prison.

“When this predator was a government employee, he lured unsuspecting women to his government-leased housing and drugged them,” said US Attorney Matthew M. Graves.

“After drugging these women, he stripped, sexually abused and photographed them. Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant will be properly marked as a sex offender for life, and he will spend a substantial portion of the rest of his life behind bars.

Prosecutors said in court filings that Raymond had engaged in a 14-year-long “criminal scheme to exploit women”.

In court filings, they said Raymond’s actions typically followed a pattern: He would drug women at his apartment alongside wine and snacks, then “spent hours moving, posing and assaulting them”. Some victims had met him on dating apps, while others had known him for nearly 20 years.

The case against Raymond began in May 2020, when a naked woman was seen screaming for help from the balcony of his Mexico City “government-leased housing”.

“Raymond admitted to having sexual intercourse with her, but the woman reported that she had no memory of events after consuming drinks and food provided by Raymond,” the FBI wrote in a 2021 public notice, seeking potential victims of Raymond.

In 2023, Raymon pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material.

As part of the plea agreement, Raymond admitted to drugging and then engaging in nonconsensual sexual acts with four women and nonconsensual sexual contact with six women. He further admitted to drugging and then creating obscene material depicting 28 women without their knowledge or permission and drugging two other women.

The bitter experience of the victims

In an emotional hearing this week, victims of Raymond’s deplorable actions filled four rows in the courtroom, with 12 of them taking to the stand to ask that he be given the maximum sentence, according to the Washington Post.

The women who spoke in court were not named, but NPR reports they described the shock they felt when the FBI showed them photos of themselves unconscious while being assaulted.

My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” one victim said, according to the AP. “Now I have these nightmares of seeing myself dead.”

Another woman testified in court: “Was I raped? Was I sexually assaulted? I will never know, and that haunts me too.” Having been held without bail in a D.C. prison since 2020, Raymond listened to the victims in court, before apologising by reading a statement, saying he takes responsibility for “his downward spiral” and “unconscionable actions”.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly instituted the maximum sentence, saying Raymond’s acts had “betrayed his government and his country.”

“It’s safe to say he’s a sexual predator,” she said, according to the AP. “You are going to have a period of time to think about this.”

In the FBI’s statement, authorities praised all the victims who came forward, saying they thank “the brave women who shared information that furthered this investigation”.

Raymond’s sentencing comes amid a string of sexual misconduct investigations at the CIA, including another officer trainee that’s scheduled to face a jury trial next month on charges he assaulted a woman with a scarf in a stairwell at the agency’s Langley, Virginia headquarters.

A recent 648-page internal watchdog report found that there were systemic shortcomings in the CIA’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints.

Liza Mundy, author of ‘Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA’, said “the classified nature of the activities” in this male-dominated agency has long been a refuge for atrocious sexual misconduct: “For decades, men at the top had free rein”.

The CIA has publicly condemned Raymond’s crimes and implemented sweeping reforms intended to keep women safe, streamline claims and more quickly discipline offenders.

“There is absolutely no excuse for Mr. Raymond’s reprehensible, appalling behaviour,” the agency said. “As this case shows, we are committed to engaging with law enforcement.

Women’sagenda

About Sexual Assault

September 25, 2024 0 comment