More than 30 women are planning to strip to their underwear outside Downing Street today in protest at the way victims of rape are treated by the justice system.
Campaigners with the SlutWalk coalition say they are outraged by the case of an officer from the Met Police’s specialist sex crimes unit who admitted failing to investigate a string of rapes and sex assaults by faking reports, failing to pass on evidence and not interviewing suspects.
Ryan Coleman-Farrow worked at the Met’s Sapphire unit, which is meant to be the gold standard of how rape crimes are investigated.
Anastasia Richardson, organising the protest said: “When rape is reported police often dismiss or downgrade the complaint, lose or fail to collect evidence, refuse to interview witnesses or make arrests, and blame the victim, usually a woman or girl, rather than the rapist.”
Today’s protest comes before a SlutWalk protest march through central London on Saturday which up to 2,000 people are expected to attend.
The SlutWalk movement started in Canada last year after a Toronto policeman told a group of students they should “avoid dressing like sluts” if they didn’t want to be raped.
