MUM’S 9- YEAR FIGHT FOR JUSTICE I had to face smirking rapist in the street after police botched case This monster is danger to all women
THE agony is etched on rape victim Anita Grinham’s face – she’s been through hell for nine years and there’s no end in sight.
The mum of four is still forced to face her sneering rapist in her home town, knowing police blunders mean he will never face justice for his crime.
He spiked her drink and attacked her in 2008 with her kids in the next room but prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to take him to court.
Anita, now 43, left 87 voice messages on a number manned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission before a probe was started. Now, having relived her ordeal at seven hearings she has finally won a five-figure payout from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
But this is little comfort as she lives in fear of her rapist striking again. Bravely choosing to speak out despite being legally entitled to anonymity, she said: “I’m happy the authorities have finally acknowledged I was raped. For so long I’ve been made to feel like a liar.
“There have been times when I’ve thought I was going mad but in a way my anger has kept me going because I promised myself I’d never give up fighting – not just for my own sake, but for the sake of all the other women who have been through this awful ordeal.
“But the man who attacked me still walks the streets. I see him at the shops and the petrol station and he smirks at me, knowing what he’s done.
“He hasn’t been punished but I have a life sentence. Where is the justice? He is a massive danger to women and I think he’s capable of anything.”
Anita’s harrowing ordeal began after she drove to an Ipswich pub with workmates in July 2008 and had drunk just one glass of wine. She’d asked her attacker – a casual acquaintance – to look after her drink while she used the toilet.
Zombie
She said: “I trusted him as I’d seen him around. We’d say hello but nothing more. As soon as I took another sip of my drink I started to feel woozy.
“By the time I’d finished it, I could barely stand. It was like I’d had ten glasses of wine, not one. He told me he’d take me home and I drifted in and out of consciousness in the car journey. Suffolk police assured her the case would
“The next thing I remember is being in be handled by a highly trained officer. my bed with him lying on top of me. I But the employee in charge had no spewanted to scream and kick him off me cific training in sex cases. Forensic examibut I felt paralysed. nations were botched, witnesses were not
“It was devastating that he’d violated interviewed properly and officers failed me in such an awful way but it was also to search the man’s home and car. devastating that he’d made sure there was The result was Anita’s attacker was absolutely no way I could fight back. arrested but never charged – as
“Tears streamed down my face until he prosecutors believed there was no realistic finished and left. By that point, the feeling prospect of a conviction. in my legs was returning, so I staggered She said: “Alarm bells started to ring into the bath and scrubbed myself until when the officers quizzed me aboutout my my skin was red raw.” sexual history. They did everything hing all
To Anita’s horror, he returned just wrong but continually tried to tellll me hours later and, astonishingly, demanded they knew what they were doing. she drive him home. She said: “I didn’t “When they told me they couldn’tn’t know what to do. My children were in the prosecute him, I was devastated. I house and I was terrified he’d hurt us all. bared my soul to those officers ass
“Like a zombie, I bundled them into I truly believed they’d help me get the car and started to drive. I was shaking justice but they failed me.” and I felt physically sick as he was wearing Months of agony followed as the same aftershave from the night before Anita developed post traumatic and the smell brought everything back. stress disorder and suffered We barely exchanged a word.” regular panic attacks. These were
Then the rapist began sending her made worse as she often bumpedd threatening text messages, leaving her into her attacker on the streets. terrified in anddher own home. It was only She said: “I’d walk past him and when she managed to secure a house he’d look me up and down with a smirkmi irk move, five weeks later, that she felt safe on his face. He didn’t have to say a word enough to report the attack to the police. for me to be left shaking and sweating. ating. I started avoiding certain parts of Ipswich because I was so scared of seeing him.
“Once I saw him at a petrol station and I was so frustrated that I screamed and called him a rapist but as soon as I drove off I burst into floods of tears and I had to pull over.
“Another time, I was in a friend’s hair salon and we were speaking about what had happened. A woman approached me and told me she was his wife. I was speechless as she tried to defend him and claimed my allegations were false.”
Brave Anita decided to take action. She contacted the IPCC in 2010 but claims they failed to prioritise her case.
She was also told she could be eligible for compensation but almost missed the application deadline as police failed to submit key paperwork on time. They also