Woman who was raped held on to ‘guilt and shame’ for years but then took action to ‘show the world no means no’
A rape survivor who held on to “the guilt and the shame” for years before reporting her attacker has told Sky News she has now “passed it on to him” after he was jailed for seven years.
Warning: The following article contains details of serious sexual assault
The woman, who is retaining her legal right to anonymity, was raped by DJ Alisdair Randalls when she was just 18 in December 2015.
She told Sky News that she “never wanted to go to the police” but after years of suffering in silence she realised she had to take action to avoid anyone else potentially being hurt and to “show the world that no means no”.
Randalls, who was 21 at the time of the attack and is now 30, denied any wrongdoing but in April was found guilty of rape following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on 15 May.
The woman, now 27, said: “I just felt like I had to help and put people like him away. You can’t live in fear of these people.
“I held the guilt and the shame and all of that for ages, for years.
“And I’ve passed it on to him. He can take it now. It’s on him to deal with it when he comes out.”
The pair had matched on Tinder and had been flirting for around three weeks before Randalls encouraged the teenager to meet him at his flat in Aberdeen after he had been out drinking.
The woman said Randalls had previously been “flirty and chatty” and appeared to be a “nice boy”.
However, when she changed her mind about having sex, he ignored her pleas to stop and went on to rape her.
During the attack, he seized her by the throat.
The woman, who described Randalls as “a devil and a beast”, confided in her flatmate and a friend over what happened.
She was then forced to seek therapy after being unable to cope with the aftermath of the rape.
‘I didn’t want to be here any more’
The woman said: “I did not know what to do with myself. I didn’t want to be here any more. It was that bad.
“It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever gone through in my life. I could not function.
“I felt guilty, I felt embarrassed, I felt ashamed. I was angry. I was like, ‘why me? Why did he pick me?’
“I cried all the time. It was honestly awful. I can’t really remember a lot of the emotions either, because I’ve kind of blocked it.”
The woman saw Randalls during a night out around a year after the attack.
She said he grabbed her arm and attempted to say hello, but she managed to escape and hid in the toilets.
The woman eventually reported Randalls in December 2021 and he was subsequently arrested and charged.
The woman said: “I felt no one would believe me.”
However, she received support from Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
She said: “They were so understanding. They took their time with me. They were all lovely. They made me feel comfortable and not to feel embarrassed about it.”
‘The defence lawyer’s questioning felt personal’
The woman said the lengthy wait for the trial was difficult and in the lead-up to the proceedings she was “all over the place”.
At court, she was even caught off guard when she heard Randalls’ name over the tannoy.
The trial took four days and the woman felt the brunt of the defence lawyer as he attempted to clear his client.
She said: “It was a shock. Everyone warns you, saying ‘oh it’s tough’. But it was brutal.
“It felt like it was personal. They say it’s not and it’s just his job, but it felt personal. It felt nasty and he was trying to discredit me in any way.”
‘I felt like the judge took it seriously’
Following the conviction, sentencing Judge Lord Colbeck said Randalls accepted “no responsibility” for his crime.
He added: “You show little or no insight in to your offending behaviour and the impact this has had upon your victim.”
As well as the seven-year jail sentence, Randalls was also banned for life from contacting the woman and was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
The woman said she was “shocked” with the sentence, saying: “I didn’t expect that. I was stunned, I actually was. I felt like the judge took it seriously.”
The woman has dated since the attack, but is still “very, very wary”.
She said: “I genuinely thought he was a nice boy. So, just not knowing people’s true intentions, it does scare me.”
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The woman understands there will be many others who have suffered similar assaults but are too scared to come forward.
She admitted the court process is “not easy”, with some parts “completely out of your control”, but she stressed you “can’t let these people roam the streets”.
‘I have to show the world that no means no’
She said: “It’s a lengthy process, and it can be tedious waiting months and even years in my case to get anywhere. Sometimes I thought it was never-ending.
“Additionally, I thought it was difficult enough to tell friends and family, however, standing up to tell my story to 20 strangers was the part I felt most vulnerable.
“I definitely went through stages of being re-traumatised and it made everything that bit more physically and emotionally draining.
“There were points I wanted to give up. All I could tell myself was that even though I don’t want to do this, I have to do this.
“I have to protect every single woman from him. I have to make this world a safer place. I have to safeguard the future of young girls from monsters like him. I have to hold him accountable for what he has done. I have to show the world that no means no.
“I was not guaranteed a positive outcome, no one is, but all you have to do is try.
“If we don’t try then we won’t get anywhere. It’s so cliché but you don’t realise how strong you actually are. If I can do it, anyone can.”
‘You don’t need to cope alone’
Katrina Parkes, Scotland’s procurator fiscal for high court sexual offences, commended the woman “for her courage” in reporting Randalls and for helping to bring him to justice.
Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, is urging all those who are in need of support to get in touch.
She said: “No matter how long ago it happened, if you have been affected by sexual violence, you don’t need to cope alone.
“When you’re ready to talk, rape crisis services are ready to listen.”
Helplines if you are in need of support:
• Rape Crisis Scotland – 08088 01 03 02
• Rape Crisis England and Wales – 0808 500 2222
• Rape Crisis Network Ireland – 1800 778 888
• Rape Crisis Northern Ireland – 0800 0246 991
Heathrow was among a number of major airports across Europe hit by delays after a suspected cyber attack that targeted a service provider for check-in and boarding systems.
The “technical issue” affecting Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding services for various airlines, resulted in 14 flights being cancelled at Brussels Airport on Saturday, and several more being delayed at London Heathrow, Berlin, and Dublin, among others.
‘Very clever cyber attack’ cancels flights in Europe – latest
Passengers have reported being unable to check in online, instead queuing for hours for staff to deal with them manually at desks and departure gates, only to be told their flights are not taking off.
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Helen Steel, 49, left Dorset for Heathrow at 3am to travel home to Oslo, with her cat Thomas – but was “shouted at by staff” who told her she would not be able to fly until Sunday.
Describing the situation as an “absolute nightmare”, she said: “I’ve got an animal here, so I’m very concerned about his welfare.
“I’ve been shouted at twice and I broke down in tears because I was worried about him. None of us have had any information whatsoever. Whenever we ask ground staff, they shout at us.”
Ms Steel says she spent two hours in the queue on the phone to customer service and is now having to find a hotel to stay in overnight.
Sam arrived at Heathrow expecting to drop his girlfriend off for her flight to Rio de Janeiro – but was still at the airport seven hours later.
Sam has been at Heathrow for seven hours after his girlfriend’s flight to Rio was cancelled
When they arrived, it was “chaos everywhere”, he told Sky News, with “nobody seeming to know what was going on”.
The couple say they were not told about the cyber attack by airport staff, finding out about it online instead.
After queuing for three hours, they made it to the front, only to be told the plane was not taking off, he adds.
“Her flight was at 8.40am and it was held back until 10.15am. At 10.10am they sent everyone away and told them to contact the airline. But there are no representatives for any airlines whatsoever. It’s been a bit of a farce.
“Nobody knew where they were going – and they were sending people left, right, and centre.
“She’s going tomorrow now, but we’ve got to find a hotel, and no one is here to give us any hotel vouchers. They just give you a piece of paper and say ‘you’ve got to pay for it yourself’.”
Passengers wait for news at Heathrow Terminal 4. Pic: PA
‘Insane queues’ and ‘skeleton staff’
Passenger Tereza Pultarova waited around 10 hours at Heathrow after she arrived at 4.30am for her flight to Cape Town via Amsterdam.
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Tereza Pultarova had to wait 10 hours at Heathrow
“We were kind of stranded here because KLM wasn’t able to issue us boarding passes digitally, and requested us to collect them at the check-in desk,” she said.
“And then they told us that there is some sort of global issue with the system they’re using for check-in and boarding, and they have to do everything manually. So then they were checking in people at the rate of, like, one person per 10 minutes.
“I’m not exaggerating. It was just insane, the queue wasn’t moving. And then suddenly they said, ‘Oh, the flight will be departing, we’re closing the gate’.
Maria Casey was due to fly to Thailand with Etihad Airways – but had to wait three hours to drop off her luggage at Heathrow, with staff taking between five and 10 minutes to deal with each passenger.
Queues at Heathrow. Pic: PA
“The queues are terrible,” she told Sky News. “It was an absolute skeleton staff. Out of six of the desks there were probably two people”.
A Heathrow spokesperson advised people to arrive no more than three hours early for a flight and apologised for any inconvenience.
It is understood British Airways at Terminal 5 remains unaffected and is operating as normal.
Collins Aerospace said it is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
“We have become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our Muse (Multi-User System Environment) software in select airports, the firm said in a statement.
“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations. We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.”
An elderly British couple who have arrived back in the UK after being detained in a maximum security Taliban prison are “delighted to be free”, their son has told Sky News.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were arrested in February after spending decades in Afghanistan, where they have dual citizenship.
They had been held without charge before being released from detention on Friday and flown to Qatar, where they were reunited with their daughter, before flying back to Heathrow Airport on Saturday.
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Freed couple reunites with daughter
The couple’s son, Jonathan Reynolds, told Sky News: “They’re just delighted to be free… they’re very excited to see their kids and grandkids and great grandkids, people they’ve just been wanting to catch up with and wondered if they’d ever see them again.”
Jonathan, who spoke to his parents from Wyoming in the US in a FaceTime call with some of his siblings, said: “I’ve seen photographs of them in hospital beds getting checked. I’ve seen them having full English breakfasts. So they’re jumping on that.”
Peter Reynolds enjoys breakfast after his release
He described some of the conditions his parents had been kept under in a “big maximum security prison with thousands of inmates”.
“My dad described being handcuffed or chained to other criminals. And, one point he had his chest hairs ripped out,” he said.
“He was hit in the head. And, then they were moved, to more of a safe house.”
Peter Reynolds gets hospital check-up
But Jonathan said his parents retained their British politeness even when calling him from a payphone in the prison yard, with his dad asking: “Is now a good time?”.
“It was totally, ‘Yeah, not too bad. Where’s the queue to get out of here?'”
The UK government advises British nationals not to travel to Afghanistan.
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson at the Taliban government’s foreign ministry, said in a statement posted on X that the couple “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison after a court hearing.
He did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.
Sky correspondent Cordelia Lynch was at Kabul Airport as the freed couple arrived and departed.
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Sky’s Cordy Lynch speaks to released couple
Mr Reynolds told her: “We are just very thankful.”
His wife added: “We’ve been treated very well. We’re looking forward to seeing our children.
“We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens.”
The couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an organisation called Rebuild, which provides education and training programmes.
They have been together since the 1960s and married in the Afghan capital in 1970.
An elderly British couple who were detained in a maximum security Taliban prison have arrived in the UK.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday.
The couple were detained by the Taliban’s interior ministry on 1 February as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan.
They had been held without charge before being released from detention on Friday and flown to Qatar, where they were reunited with their daughter.
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Freed couple reunites with daughter
Richard Lindsay, the UK’s special envoy to Afghanistan, previously told Sky News it was “unclear” on what grounds the couple had been detained.
The UK government advises British nationals not to travel to Afghanistan.
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson at the Taliban government’s foreign ministry, said in a statement posted on X that the couple “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison after a court hearing.
He did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.
Sky correspondent Cordelia Lynch was at Kabul Airport as the freed couple arrived and departed.
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Sky’s Cordy Lynch speaks to released couple
Mr Reynolds told her: “We are just very thankful.”
His wife added: “We’ve been treated very well. We’re looking forward to seeing our children.
“We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens.”
The couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an organisation called Rebuild, which provides education and training programmes.
They have been together since the 1960s and married in the Afghan capital in 1970.
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