Mum seeks £100k from strangers online to prosecute her ‘rapist’
A WOMAN who claims she was drugged and raped in an upmarket hotel wants to raise £100,000 to prosecute her alleged attacker.
Emily Hunt, 38, says she woke up naked and terrified with no memory of the previous five hours after a Sunday lunch with her father.
The strategy consultant immediately contacted police, but accuses them of behaving ‘abysmally’ and trying to dissuade her from making a complaint.
Several months later prosecutors declined to bring a case, citing CCTV footage which showed her and the alleged rapist being ‘flirty’ in the bar.
Yesterday, Miss Hunt, originally from New York, launched a crowd-funding campaign to bring a private prosecution. She says her life was turned upside down after the alleged attack at the £300-a-night Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, East London, in May 2015.
Waiving her right to anonymity, she claimed a man she had never met before drugged her and then took her back to a bedroom and raped her.
She says she can only remember waking up in his bed with no memory of how she got there or who he was. She tele-
‘I still want justice’
phoned a friend who contacted police.
In the following days and weeks, Miss Hunt only learned the man had sex with her from police after they interviewed him and recovered used condoms.
She also discovered that police had recovered footage of her naked and unconscious from his phone and found him carrying Viagra and LSD.
Toxicology tests did not find any suspicious drugs in Miss Hunt’s system, and suggested she had been at least twice the drink-drive limit.
But she believes they were based on the wrong timings after a mistake by police. Miss Hunt, who has a seven-yearold daughter, accused officers from Scotland Yard’s specialist sex crimes unit of not taking her seriously.
She said she was only forensically examined after telling a doctor during a follow-up appointment at a sexual health clinic. Miss Hunt said officers suggested she was accusing the man of rape because she had been ‘unfaithful’ to her boyfriend.
Now she wants her case to be a ‘pilot’ for a new charity which will also fund other cases on behalf of women who consider they’ve been let down by the system.
‘Prosecutors need to be pursuing these cases a lot harder than they have been and if they are not willing to, I will,’ she said.
‘I am sickened by the fact this comes down to money but at the same time I am very lucky to live in a country where this is possible. Research shows the overwhelming majority of women who say they have been raped are telling the truth and rapists will go on to rape again.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have an abysmal record when it comes to rape. But I still want justice,’ she said. Last night Miss Hunt had already raised more than £5,000 towards her goal, which will be spent on getting a top sexual offence QC.
The Metropolitan Police said a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of rape but had been released with no further action.
A Met spokesman said ‘a number’ of complaints about the inquiry were examined by the independent police watchdog and were not upheld.’
He added: ‘We will always provide support to anyone who reports a serious sexual offence. We would urge anyone who has been a victim of a sexual offence to report the matter to the police – we are here to fully investigate, listen to and support you.’
The CPS said a specialist lawyer ruled there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for a realistic prospect of a guilty verdict.