Thread by @lucysiegle

Please read my thread 🧵There has been a lot about sexual assault and reporting this week. Not least because @Kathbum @louistheroux interview again created a bit of space for this debate. @PollyVernon & @HarrietEJohnson pushed the discussion forwards on Woman's hour fri..1/

There are so many egregious 'misunderstandings' about sexual assault complaints. Many from women internalising misogyny. They've been aired a lot this week and they are maddening to those of us who are whistleblowers/victims etc. One of the main 'myths' is that we are out to../2

cancel a chap who just got a bit handsy 🤮 a few years ago but wouldn't do it now. This is utter bollocks. ON the subject of which paraphilia behaviours - including groping/exposure etc are unlikely to be one offs and indeed can escalate in severity.../3

The 'misdemeanour' I reported to my institution Guardian News and Media was a low level 'grope' at the photocopier. Some have said it wouldn't happen today. While it is true that photocopiers do not have the office presence or importance that they once had, I disagree.../4

The issue is you see, that an individual can go on to target women in a variety of different ways including digitally, over decades. You see these are rarely cases of a single case of mistaken grope or misinterpretation. That's the framing of the perpetrator.../5

But I don't blame the silly people who take this tack. A) conditioning B) they might be victims in denial (very very common) or C) harbouring someone who does this stuff - they are also victims. But D) this is exactly how institutions act and frame incidents.../6

What we have is a deeply unhappy legal and wider culture that allows institutions to decide whether or not to act or whether to bury their heads in the sand. Occasionally if the victim gets together with other victims and mounts a legal case, they might have to pay out a sum../7

This is worth it though isn't it? I'm sure some institutions ring fence a bit of cash for this repetitional offsetting. Some are paid off and then forced to sign NDAs which is completely disgusting. Then you get liberal saps like me who don't sue, just wanted it dealt with/8

To put it mildly there is no business case for institutions to act. OK. But there is duty of care, and institutions currently get the opportunity to decide whether to clear house and get rid of perpetrators & keep wider public safe or they can employ tools to avoid the issue/9

Most do the latter. Tools include using aggressive legal firms to diminish complainants, trying to bounce complaints into a never ending HR process where complainants have to constantly meet thresholds of more evidence, investigations that never end/10

and on and on it goes...These are all things that happened to me. Thanks GNM! But there are other strategies too. Invariably you find out that the institution has form in these responses and is often very experienced. We should try something different/11

Institutions should have to - by law - give appropriate and real channels for complaints and whistleblowers to report sexual misconduct. No one individual should have the power to shut down complaints & independent investigators who are survivor literate & understand/12

sexual assault and how perpetrators actually act, should be used to establish what has happened over a wide timeframe. Complainants should stop being dragged over coals in arbitrary processes & institutional safeguarding should be properly audited/13

Complaints should look into the wider culture and where opportunities were missed to correct course. Institutions should not be allowed to start from a position of deny and delay. It is a terrible power imbalance - think of the Guardian's resources and power versus me for eg/14

It's obvious that at some point I'm going to be ground down and will give up. Which is what they are counting on. Anyway, I'm ground down by this thread. My point is there is a ton of constructive stuff we could do if we all decided that this really mattered. ENDS

Ah sorry! I'm not done. Lots on the risk shouldered by women naming the perpetrator. Another thing we could do is name the institution not the individual, because these are institutional failings. Let them carry the risk of dealing with it. About time they did something. ENDS?