MP reveals rape ordeal during court reform debate

A Labour MP has spoken publicly for the first time about being raped as she accused Justice Secretary David Lammy of using crime victims as a "cudgel" to push through his reforms of the legal system.

Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols waived her right of anonymity as she criticised the Courts and Tribunals Bill's plans to limit jury trials to cases with a likely prison sentence of three years or more.

In a powerful Commons speech, she said she waited 1,088 days to go to court, with every day being "agony" and the "trauma" made worse by her role in public life.

Nichols said her attacker was acquitted at crown court but subsequently ordered to pay compensation after she won a civil case against him.

Lammy pleaded with Labour MPs to support his reforms, saying they would reduce a record backlog of crown court cases.

MPs voted to allow the Bill to progress to the next stage in the Parliamentary process, despite Nichols and some other Labour MPs' opposition.

It passed by 304 votes to 203, a majority of 101, with 10 Labour MPs rebelling against the government and dozens abstaining.

Nichols said her public profile meant the "mental health consequences of my trauma were played out in public".

She said this led to her eventually being sectioned for her own safety, and noted that this was something she still "received regular social media abuse from strangers about to this day".

Nichols added: "But here's the kicker: in this debate, experiences like mine feel like they've been weaponised and are being used for rhetorical misdirection, for what this Bill actually is."

She continued: "We have been told that if we have concerns about this Bill, it is because we have not been raped or because we don't care enough for rape victims.

"The opposite is true in my case, it is because I have been raped that I am as passionate as I am about what it means for a justice system to be truly victim-focused.

"It is because I have endured every indignity that our broken criminal justice system could mete out that I care what kind of reform will actually deliver justice for survivors and victims of crime more widely."

"There is so much that we can be doing for rape victims that isn't the Lord Chancellor (and Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy) using them as a cudgel to drive through reforms that aren't directly relevant to them.

"As a starting point, Rape Crisis England and Wales have called for five key demands in their Living in Limbo report. Don't say that this Bill helps deliver justice for rape victims, until it actually, materially does."

Nichols said "the government's framing and narrative has been to pit survivors and defendants against each other in a way I think is deeply damaging".

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