Concetta says victims and survivors should be better prepared for what might happen in court
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
When Concetta was in her early teens, she was groomed, abused and raped by a music tutor.
She found the court case extremely harrowing, and after serving a short sentence the abuser returned to live in her home area.
Concetta grew up in a musically gifted family. She played an instrument at concerts and performances, and received extra tuition from a young male music teacher, James. James and his family were friends with Concetta’s family.
At first the lessons took place at school, but then James suggested he could teach Concetta at his home on weekends. Concetta says ‘Because my family knew him, we went along with it’.
Over the following months, James started complimenting Concetta on her looks. He was in his 20s and she was in her early teens. She says ‘He was young and good looking … I knew many of the girls at school had a crush on him and I was flattered he wanted to hang out with me … he made me feel I was more grown up than I was’.
James then started telling her about his relationship problems and his poor sex life with his girlfriend. ‘He made me feel I was the girlfriend he wanted to have.’ He became more explicit about his ‘feelings’ for her, and kissed her.
He then made it clear he wanted to have sex with Concetta. She says she was embarrassed about her body and she lay passively as he raped her. When it was over, he drove her home. Concetta was very shaken by what had happened and she told a friend and her sister about it, but she says they were too young to know what to do.
She didn’t want to go to James’s house again, but it was difficult for her to avoid, and when she did, he raped her again. She says it was so uncomfortable for her she was determined not to let it happen again. She avoided James at school; he kept pestering her but she never went back to his house.
Over the next few years, Concetta developed an eating disorder, and began drinking alcohol and telling lies. She remembers feeling shame and embarrassment, and tensions developed between herself and her parents.
Some years later, after Concetta had left home and got married, her mother rang her to tell her that a teenage girl had reported James to the police in respect of an indecent assault. Concetta says her mother kept saying how ‘unbelievable’ this was. She replied ‘I can believe it’ but says it was clear her mother didn’t want to talk about it. Later it emerged that the girl had a breakdown and withdrew her statement.
Concetta took a job where she had to sign a commitment to safeguarding. This made her feel she had a duty to report the abuse she had experienced to the police. She was relieved they took her complaint seriously, but she found the investigation and court processes extremely difficult, disappointing and frustrating.
She was told that for legal reasons the police could not proceed with certain charges. The investigation dragged on for a couple of years and when she went to court to give evidence, she says the experience was ‘brutal’. She waited there all day without being called and says she would have given up without the help of Victim Support. ‘They were extraordinary … they had to sit there for hours. They were my saving grace.’
She adds ‘I counted myself as someone reasonably together, but it was at the edge of what I could have gone through’.
Another victim and survivor had come forward and James was found guilty of one offence against Concetta and several others in respect of the other girl. He received a custodial sentence but Concetta does not feel it reflected what James had done.
When he was released, Concetta was shocked that he returned to the area and continued protesting his innocence, and this seemed to be accepted by many in the community.
She says one of the lasting impacts for her is that she can’t visit her family because James is nearby again. She was diagnosed with PTSD and thinks that the court case contributed significantly to this.
Concetta feels strongly that witnesses should be better prepared for what may happen in court. She says ‘There were moments of good practice but generally it was unpleasant and harrowing and much worse than I thought it would be … when people put themselves forward there should be an honest description of what you could go through’.
She would also like the police to be more careful and sensitive about the way they inform victims and survivors about developments in investigations.