Thread by @JusticeForGaia

1) “Hundreds of people disclosing their experiences of having been harassed by him was devastating for Gaia because she felt it was proof that what happened to her wasn’t an isolated incident, said @MariennaPW

#JusticeForGaia

theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j…

2) @MariennaPW described how she and the rest of the family tried to get mental health support for #GaiaPope. She was admitted to hospital several times but was repeatedly discharged with “no real care plan”.

#JusticeForGaia

3) She that after being raped, Pope, who had #epilepsy, became “very anxious and very afraid”, but added: “She wanted to live. She was a survivor in every sense of the word.”

4) The alleged attacker continued to contact Gaia. “She was terrified and desperate for any kind of protection,” @MariennaPW said. “But they [the police] weren’t able to give us that. She lived with fear pretty much every day for the rest of her life.”

5) She said Pope was particularly upset when a psychiatrist wrote she had “delusions of sexual assault”. @MariennaPW said: “It seemed that mental health services had made up their mind that it was a delusion.”

#JusticeForGaia #JusticeForAllOfUs #endVAWG #rapejusticenow

6) #GaiaPope who accused a man of raping her was told by #police there was no chance of a successful prosecution and that a trial would be “very traumatic”, leading her to fear she would never be believed.

#JusticeForGaia

independent.co.uk/news/uk/swanag…

7) She said Gaia experienced repeated crisis points in the years that followed while she & the family desperately tried to get her adequate support.

@MariennaPW said she was often made to feel like a nuisance when enquiring about the care of her cousin, who was an advocate for

8) While @MariennaPW waited on hold the frustrated sounding operator could be heard telling a colleague: “This is a joke. No one will take the call.”

She finally told Ms Pope-Weidemann that she promises to have someone call her back, but no one ever did.

The family were also told by the #police to stop searching in a rural areas, including the coastline near where Ms Pope was eventually found, with an officer reassuring them that:

“If she was there, we would have found her.”

#JusticeForGaia #JusticeForAllOfUs #rapejusticenow

10) "Gaia told me she felt the staff in hospital didn’t really listen to her when she talked about rape and sexual assault issues - they didn’t really understand."

@MariennaPW said hospital staff made her feel like she was being treated as a nuisance.

itv.com/news/meridian/…

11) "It felt like we were being unreasonable for asking for support for a 19 year old in #mentalhealth crisis. I felt like I was considered to be a nuisance by making extra work for them - asking them to contact other services, asking to be informed of important meetings."

12) She said the family had repeatedly asked for community #mentalhealth support & care plans to be put in place for #GaiaPope when she was discharged from hospital, telling jurors about the impact of the rape, "It was changing the person I loved right before my eyes.”

13) "If she was out there we'd have found her," said #Dorset #Police to Gaia's cousin @MariennaPW when telling family not to search the rural area where her body was eventually found. @BBCNews 🌹 #JusticeForGaia

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