Ealing vicarage rape victim dies

Sexual assault campaigner Jill Saward, the first rape victim to waive her right to anonymity, has died aged 51. Ms Saward was just 21 when she was raped by two men after a gang of burglars broke into her father’s vicarage in Ealing, west London. The men demanded money and jewellery before beating her father and boyfriend with cricket bats and fracturing their skulls. Two men then dragged Ms Saward upstairs to a bedroom and repeatedly raped her. Robert Horscroft, who did not take part in the sexual assault, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the burglary. However, Martin McCall was sentenced to just five years for the rape and a further five for the robbery while Christopher Byrne was given three years for sexual assault and another three for the burglary. During sentencing, Old Bailey Judge Robert Leonard said the trauma she had received from being raped was “not so very great”. He later apologised for this remark. Following the public backlash, Ms Saward became the first rape victim in the UK to waive her anonymity in 1990 and co-wrote a book called Rape: My Story. Her case put laws on sexual assault under the spotlight and sparked women’s rights groups and politicians to call for these crimes to be taken more seriously. Since then, rape within marriage was made a criminal offence, oral and anal intercourse was classified as rape and rapists now receive tougher sentences. In 1994, she set up a help group for rape victims and their families, and also became a counsellor, regularly appearing in the media to highlight issues faced by victims of sexual assault. She also provided training to police forces across the country after becoming a sexual assault case worker. Ms Saward believed very strongly in forgiveness and in 1998 she came face-to-face with a member of the gang that burgled her father’s vicarage, telling him: “You don’t need to say sorry”. Northumbria police and crime commissioner Dame Vera Baird tweeted: “What a gap the bold, courageous, sensitive Jill Saward will leave. We must redouble our efforts to put an end to rape, in her memory.” It is reported that she died after suffering a stroke.