Police: We’re learning from mistakes of the past
THINGS DONE DIFFERENTLY NOW, SAYS NORTH EAST DETECTIVE
VICTIMS of double rapist Eric McKenna bravely faced the predator in court three decades after his terrifying attacks.
With the support of trained police officers, the two women had to re-live their horrendous ordeals to help put him behind bars.
But these women’s experiences of police and the criminal justice system in 2018 were worlds apart from the treatment one described when she originally reported being attacked by McKenna back in 1983.
The 58-year-old is facing jail after a jury at Newcastle Crown Court convicted him of attacking two women five years apart in the 1980s.
But during the course of the trial shocking allegations were made about the way rape victims were treated by police three decades ago.
McKenna’s first victim was raped near the High Level Bridge in 1983.
Andrew Espley, prosecuting, told jurors how the woman was initially dismissed by officers.
“At Gateshead police station her treatment was appalling. She had to wait 10 or 15 minutes before she was seen and worse was to follow,” he said.
“The police officer was unsympathetic and asked if she was gay. He said, ‘What do you expect if you are a single parent?’ One suggested she go home and forget about it.
“Well, that’s 1983 for you. Everyone knows that could not possibly happen now.”
Just two days after this attack our sister paper, the Sunday Sun, ran an article about how Northumbria Police was taking the lead in improving the treatment of rape victims.
With the headline ‘Rape Victims Get Softly Softly Help’ the piece tells how the force was one of the first in the country to use female doctors to examine victims.
However, despite her treatment at the time of the offence, the victim faced her attacker in court 35 years later and last week helped convict him of two attacks.
Today the detective who led the investigation into McKenna’s crimes praised the victims for their courtroom courage.
And Det Con Michael Wilson has joined rape experts and campaigners in reassuring the public that women would never be treated this way today.
He said: “These ladies’ lives have been destroyed in part because of what happened to them when they were young, so the main focus has been getting justice for them.
“We had to overcome not only the fact that they had tried to forget it, but also the issues with the first investigation.
“Over a period of time they have recognised we do things very differently now. We have got specialist teams to look after victims of rape and serious sexual offences. It is completely different now to the 1980s.” McKenna, 58, pounced on two strangers in similar attacks. The first victim was raped after being pushed down a grassy bank on the Gateshead side of the High Level Bridge in 1983. Her attacker pulled her jacket over her head so that she could not see his face before forcing himself on her.
Then in 1988 an 18-year-old student was attacked in a secluded yard off Newcastle’s New Bridge Street as she walked home from a party. Again the victim’s face was covered with her own jacket.
But no-one was arrested in connection with either attack and, despite their similarities, police did not link them at the time.
McKenna was finally exposed after he was arrested over a minor dispute during which he urinated in a neighbour’s plant pot in 2016.
The self-confessed loner, of Arthur’s
We work quite closely with the police and I think there have been big improvements. Sue Pearce
Hill, Newcastle, was cautioned for harassment and gave the DNA sample which enabled police to link him to the two crimes.
But the arrest meant both victims had to work with police to help bring him to justice.
“We had been speaking to the victims all the way through and informed them as soon as he had been arrested and charged,” Det Con Wilson explained.
The 1988 victim was the first to be contacted by police and is said to have been immediately supportive of the new investigation.
However, when officers later got in touch with the victim of the 1983 attack she was at first reluctant, the detective said.
“One has been on board right from the start, but one of the victims said she wanted to try and forget it. But when she was made aware there was a second victim that’s when she began to engage with police.
“These victims have been incredible. Both have been so brave and so courageous. They have had to re-live it and they have had to re-tell it. They had tried to get on with their lives and that’s only natural.
“They are both very strong ladies and they have got on with their lives, but what happened to them has had a huge impact on them and what they have done in life.
“But they have stepped forward so they can get justice and make sure this person can be put behind bars and to show other people you can do something despite it being 35 years ago.”
Sue Pearce, co-CEO of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland, a charity that supports victims, said the treatment the woman received in 1983 was not unusual at the time.
“We work with women who have experienced sexual violence at any times in their lives and we are quite used to dealing with people where the rape happened many, many years ago, and I’m quite used to dealing with people who make similar remarks,” she explained.
“During my time with Rape Crisis the majority of people who come to use our services did not report to police.
“Unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me.”
However Sue, who has worked for Rape Crisis since 2000, said attitudes were slowly changing.
“Over the years, and definitely in the last five years or so, reporting has gradually gone up. I think there has very, very gradually been an increase in confidence.
“We work quite closely with the police and I think there have been big improvements. I work with police as a critical friend, giving feedback on how things have gone with women.”
Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird (pictured
below), a lifelong campaigner against violence against women, says the attitudes shown in 1983 were now a thing of the past.
However, she said she is not complacent and keeps a close eye on how rape victims are treated by officers in her force.
“I’m not familiar with that awful attitude from the 1980s,” she said. “I really would be satisfied that nothing like that would ever be said now. All our officers have very good training for dealing with vulnerable people. “We have also got a very good relationship between the cops and organisations like Rape Crisis. It is a big step to report something of that nature to the police.
“The good thing about the Eric McKenna case is the police must have been able to reassure her. “I think it’s absolutely great that has gone to court because the public does need these guys
off the streets.”