Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your generous support of my crowd funder to seek justice against the Metropolitan Police for losing my rape evidence. The case is now over and I wanted to let you know what the outcome is and what steps were taken.

In Autumn 2022 when the crowd funder was running I was planning to bring a legal case against the Metropolitan Police for 

a) Losing my rape evidence

b) Handling my case so poorly that myself and my lawyers believed that it impacted my human rights under Articles 3 (freedom from torture and degrading treatment of punishment) and 8 (the right to privacy) of the European Human Rights Convention. 

In order to do this, I needed to raise money for a medical examination from an expert to assess what damage was done by the police's mishandling of my case. 

I also needed to raise the court fees in order to submit my case with the High Court, which is around 5% of the total claim being made.

Around this time we submitted our 'pre-action letter', which details the broad scope of my claim along with evidence.  

Shortly after we raised the money for the case, I learned from my lawyers that in order to effectively make the human rights claim, the expert, and the police, would need full access to my counselling records from the past 5 years. 

This was very distressing to consider, particularly because the very same organisation who lost my most sensitive information would have access to more private information about me. 

I have seen the same counsellor for 5 years, and throughout this awful experience, those sessions have been my only safe space. It felt very violating to have to share this most private information with the very organisation who have caused me so much harm. 

In response to our pre action letter the police admitted liability for the data loss, but not for the human rights claims. They offered me £3000 in compensation. After much consideration and attempts to negotiate, I decided to accept the settlement and now my case is closed. 

I am incredibly grateful for your support, and although I did not use your generous donations for my case as I did not take it to court, your donations will go towards the Centre for Women's Justice who supported me for free for several years throughout this situation. Please note that if you donated over £1000 you can request a refund, Crowd Justice should have already emailed you about that. 

I am proud of the difference we made, however small, and that we did win the data claim. I believe that in my own small way, I am part of the movement to hold the police to account, and you are too. Thank you for supporting me, thank you for caring about how women are treated by the police. 

I would like to share my story with the press, and my experiences with charities, campaigning groups, activists and policy makers. After years of navigating this complex situation, I can give detailed information about the repercussions and impact of police misconduct against women, and shine a light on the myriad of ways in which the legal system not only fails women, but, in my experience, tortures them further and punished them for speaking out and seeking justice against rapists. 

If you would like to work with me to take this further and make our impact greater please email [email protected]

Thank you 

The crowd funder has now closed.

99 people came together to support me, even though you may not know me. Together, we raised £7,721! 

This will cover the cost of filing the case, and it means that I will not need to go into debt in order to seek justice.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

I will continue to post updates on this page about how the case progresses. 

Thank you for your donations, kind words, shares, support, and strength. 

MB

Hello,

Thank you so much for the support, donations, shares and kind messages. Thanks to you, we now have reached the half way mark and have raised £2,500! This will cover the costs of the expert report, which is crucial to making my case. THANK YOU. 

It is a huge relief to have this first cost covered, as it is the first thing I have to pay for, and I need to pay for it very soon, so thank you, you are amazing.

We have 11 days to go now until the crowd funder is finished. We still need to raise another £2,500 to cover the initial costs of filing the case with the courts. 

I know that there is so much going on right now for everyone and that money is very precious during the cost of living crisis, so thank you for your generosity. 

Please keep donating and sharing, I can't do it without your help.

MB

Thank you so much for your support so far for my crowd funder to file a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police for losing my rape evidence. 

The support has been overwhelmingly touching and empowering, and we have so far raised over £1000! This is so incredible, thank you so much. 

My essential costs for to file the case come to £5000, this breaks down into;

• £2500 for an expert assessment of how this has affected me, to guide the claim.
• £2,500 to file my case with the court.

Thanks to you, we are nearly half way there to covering one of these essential costs. As we go into the second week of the crowd funder, it would be amazing to reach the £5,000 mark. 

I would be able to breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that the basic costs were covered.

To help me reach this goal, please send a direct message to 3 of your friends who may resonate with what has happened to me, and ask them to donate. 

Every donation has a massive impact, together, we can pool resources and hold the Metropolitan Police to account. 

I want to say finally how deeply moved I have been by the Crowd Funder response. After carrying this for a long time, it has been a relief to know that there are people in my corner. 

Thank you,

MB