A feeling of shame and the fear of having to relive the trauma are among the main reasons that often discourage rape and sexual assault victims from coming forward.
Specialised services are in place to try to deal with situations like this and convey the message that help is available. It only takes one mistake though, one oversight by a single person, for that support system to break down.
A case in point is the recent one of a woman who found the courage to publicly declare that the police had failed to adequately question her about her rape by a work ‘colleague’. She revealed a trauma aggravated by inaction.
Judging by what the woman is alleging, this should have been an open and shut case.
She says she was raped for almost an hour in broad daylight at her place of work in June last year. Her two daughters heard her scream throughout the ordeal. When, at one point, she managed to slip away from her aggressor, she called the police, who were soon on site and had to physically drag the man away from her. She was eventually taken to Mater Dei Hospital.
She describes the two officers as “real-life heroes” who saved her life and says those who treated her in hospital were “exceptionally good”.
That is where the system functions well, where personnel demonstrate the sort of attitude and behaviour that victims like this woman would find soothing and reassuring.
But the investigating officer, in the rank of inspector, blew it. He spoke to her for only a few minutes following the incident, failed to pass the case on to the police vice squad, as per internal procedure, and did not inform the duty magistrate.
The woman insists that the police have yet to question her properly about the case and get her version, even if the alleged aggressor was arraigned last June, 12 long months after the rape was reported.
The police inspector is now undergoing disciplinary action after an internal inquiry concluded he had not followed procedure. Of course, his responsibility goes far beyond failing to go by the book. His inaction is a disservice to the police force, to the organisations working among sexual assault victims and to society itself. It had done untold damage to the victim as well as to the credibility of the system that deals with suffering people like her.
But there is a silver lining to this sad story: resilience can overcome defeat. Violently raped, bruised, terrified, fearing for the safety of her two daughters and let down by officialdom, this woman did not give up.
She retained the blood-stained clothes she was wearing, took pictures of her own injuries and obtained copies of her hospital report. She even wrote to the police commissioner, a move that must have triggered the internal inquiry leading to the disciplinary action being taken.
The officer in question is not fit to serve society, which he swore to do on taking office.
By contrast, the woman is a model of strength of character and steely determination after having gone through such a horrendous ordeal.
What she told Times of Malta explains why: “Had I known that I would have had to beg for an investigation, I would not have lodged any reports. I would have gone home with my children and mother, who love me, and tried to heal on my own. I would have been one of those raped people who don’t speak up.”
But she did, and society is so much the better for it.