‘It felt like members of the Conservative Party were putting me on trial...’
A RAPE victim whose trial was collapsed by a Conservative party candidate has spoken emotionally about the impact his actions had on her.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was attacked at a house party. Her attacker, James Hackett, was later jailed for five years after a re-trial.
The first trial collapsed after his friend Ross England, an aide to former Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns, began his evidence by making allegations about the victim’s sexual history which the judge had said the jury should not hear.
The judge heavily criticised him, saying he believed Mr England had “deliberately sabotaged” the trial.
After his comments were made public, Mr England was suspended by the Welsh Conservatives, and after questions were asked about what he knew about Mr England’s role in the trial’s collapse, Mr Cairns quit as secretary of state for Wales.
The woman who was attacked has spoken to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme about the attack, the impact on her and how she feels about that investigation.
Speaking about Mr England, she said: “The anger that I felt having gone through everything in court and being so close to the end, and he just lied so brazenly and I just thought, ‘This man feels like he’s untouchable and he was made to feel like that by the Conservative Party.’
“The trial was brought to an end and I thought I’d never see justice now but there was another trial and James Hackett was found guilty and he received prison.”
She said other members of the Conservative Party in Wales had been part of a “campaign of hatred” towards her.
“The only way I can describe it is as a campaign of hatred towards me that I’d had the gall to tell the police what happened and why would I not just let it go. It was as if I was making things very awkward for everyone else.”
She said she’d been at a party with Mr England and his then-girlfriend, now fiancee, Cardiff Conservative Councillor for Cyncoed Kathryn Kelloway when the attack happened.
Describing the attack, she said: “I was at a housewarming party for Ross who had just moved in with his girlfriend Kathryn.
“She told us if we needed to stay there it wouldn’t be an issue because it was quite a big house with a lot of bedrooms.
“Ross worked for the same MP. We were all part of a friendship group. I went to bed not thinking anything of it but when I woke up I was being attacked.
“I thought ‘I could just let this happen’ but then something kicked in and I managed to fight him off.
“I ran downstairs and told a friend.”
She said Cllr Kelloway told police that her allegation was incorrect.
“Kathryn Kelloway yelled to police that ‘She’s making it up’ before anybody had any facts, this just set the tone for the next two years.
“Between that and the trials, my life was made completely miserable.
“It felt like a complete smear campaign.
“They were trying to spread it about that I’d slept with certain people and therefore I must have deserved what had happened. I must have asked for it.
“They were trying to say I’d lied about other things, I’ve made stuff up about five years in other women, and therefore if I can make that up, I must be making this up.
“They just didn’t have any respect for me, what I was going through,” she said.
She said another member of the party, someone she considered a friend, arranged to meet her before the start of the first trial.
“He worked in Conservative HQ in Wales and I knew him for years.
“He invited me for a coffee which I assumed was to wish me well for the trial. When I got there he started listing lies that I’d supposedly told about him.
“Apparently I’d told Kathryn Kelloway he’d tried to rape me at a party before.
“I denied it because I’d never said it. I became very aware how much he was looking at his phone, my gut instinct told me it was being recorded... to give to the defence, why else would he need a recording?”
The woman was asked if she had told Mr Cairns, whom she knew, what had happened.
Mr Cairns said he did not know before he was contacted by the media.
“Yeah, I told him unequivocally what was happening.”
She added: “I got a phone call from the police one day telling me what Kathryn Kelloway had said to them and asking why she may have said that.
“I just broke down, I went into the office and wept, saying this is what I’m having to deal with.”
Asked how he responded, the woman said Mr Cairns said: “I think you’re being a bit harsh.”
She added: “One day we were in the car and I was angry and I said, ‘Do you realise how small I feel?’ I said I feel tiny because nobody believes what I’m saying.
“That was the turning point where I realised ‘you don’t get it’.
“I realised he couldn’t help me any more.”
The woman recounted how Mr England was then appointed as Mr Cairns’ campaign manager.
“I knew there was a good chance he’d want Ross England to work on his campaign as he was very good at his job and he’d worked with him before.”
After the publication of the cabinet investigation, she said: “The whole thing feels like a sham, what kind of investigation doesn’t contact the person who is most affected? It makes me question how seriously it was actually carried out.
“This was a deflection until after the general election, not a genuine investigation into Alun’s truthfulness. I would have hoped he would have used the inquiry as an opportunity to be honest and it’s regretful he did not.
“Fortunately no-one with an ounce of common sense believes his ludicrous claim that he didn’t know.”
She said she did not understand why the investigation into Mr England was ongoing.
“What investigation, we know what he did. I don’t understand, is that not enough?
“The Conservative Party has a lot of work to do to make this a safe environment for young women to work in. It’s not an old boys club, just a boys club. As long as you’re male, you’ll be fine.
“It definitely felt like members of the Conservative Party were putting me on trial, they tried their very best but they just didn’t win”.
In response to the programme, the Conservative Party in Wales said in a statement: “We are deeply sorry for the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the trial and the deep distress this must have caused the victim.”
Mr Cairns said he was “extremely sorry for the trauma and suffering she has faced”.
“I believed that my parliamentary staff and I had supported her in a caring and compassionate way throughout,” he said.
“She recognised this in messages received at the time.”
Cllr Kelloway denied “any wrong-doing whatsoever”.
“I have told nothing but the truth throughout, including to the police and in court [as a prosecution witness],” she added.
Mr Cairns was reelected as MP for the Vale of Glamorgan in December 2019 but has refused requests for interviews about his conduct.
After the election, a cabinet office investigation was published.
Mr Cairns initially said he “had no knowledge of the role of Ross England” in the collapse of the trial but faced allegations that he had breached a rule for ministers that “holders of public office should be truthful”.
A leaked email from his special adviser had suggested that the former Welsh Secretary had been told of his aide’s role in the trial’s collapse.
The investigation cleared him of breaching the ministerial code but said it found it “unlikely that Mr Cairns would not have been told something about Mr England’s role when he was told about the [trial’s] collapse”.