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.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
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
Fewer police officers are working on unsolved murder cases amid warnings the Metropolitan Police is dangerously stretched.
Five officers from the force are moving from a specialist cold case department investigating the 30-year-old murder of Atek Hussain to instead bolster basic command units.
Mr Hussain, 32, was stabbed in the heart as he returned from work in September 1994. He managed to stagger to his home and tell his family that his attackers were Asian before collapsing.
No charges have ever been brought in the case despite two focused appeals by the police on the 10th and 20th anniversaries of his killing.
Mr Hussain’s daughter Yasmin was 10 when she watched her father die in their family home. She told Sky News she had hoped the Met would launch a renewed appeal on the 30th anniversary of his death this week.
“I waited and waited as September approached, hoping they’d say something but all of the officers I’d been dealing with have either retired or moved on, and it seems nobody knows what to do with me,” she said.
“One person told me to call 101.”
Yasmin Hussain has launched her own appeal for help to find her father’s killers
The Met told Sky News the case is not currently active. However, no unsolved murder investigation is ever closed and Mr Hussain’s case was last reviewed by its Serious Crime Review Group in August.
“Should any new information come to light, it will be assessed accordingly,” it said in a statement.
“In order to better protect the public, including the prevention of future homicides, we are moving some experienced officers from specialist units to bolster BCU (basic command unit) public protection teams to ensure they have the right skills, experience and capacity.
“The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) continues to maintain a strong capability to investigate cold case homicides. No unsolved homicide is ever closed and all cases remain under review.”
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Clive Driscoll, a former Detective Chief Inspector of the Met Police who finally secured two convictions for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, explains how the forces deal with cold cases.
“Every two years you would review the case to see if there are opportunities. The one that always stands out is forensics opportunities. Forensics moved on while we’ve been talking. So that’s what you would do with a review, you would be looking to see whether or not something has changed from the last time you saw it.”
Mr Driscoll says forces across the country are facing challenges including a shortage of officers and staff, greater scrutiny of the police and an issue with confidence among officers.
Former Met Police DCI Clive Driscoll
“They feel that maybe their job has become harder,” he told Sky News before urging police units to go the extra mile.
“As hard as it may be for a police officer, it can’t be even a slightest comparison of how hard it must be for Mr Hussain’s children who’ve lost their father.”
Recent data shows the annual number of unsolved homicides across Britain has more than doubled since 2010. That is thought to be driven almost entirely by a surge in larger police forces, in particular the Met.
On Wednesday, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the force as “dangerously stretched”, telling an audience at the Police Foundation that a wave of new pressures, a lack of investment, abuse and insults of the police and reduced confidence among officers has left London less safe.
Mr Driscoll warned that failing to properly review unsolved homicides sends a dangerous message.
“We don’t want to send the message out to people that feel they can take the life of a human being and after a certain amount of time ‘oh that’s alright then I’ve got away with it’. The message must always be that if there is an opportunity to affect an arrest, put someone before a court then we will take it. We must always show that we will not forget the victim and also that out there is someone who felt that they can take someone’s life.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Atek Hussain had spent the evening working at his family-run restaurant in Croydon before arriving home to Burnels Avenue in East Ham at around 2.35am on 18 September 1994.
Officers believe he had just got out of his blue Vauxhall Cavalier and was walking towards his front door when he was attacked and stabbed in the chest.
In the absence of a renewed public plea from the police, Yasmin Hussain has launched her own appeal for help finding her father’s killers.
If you have information that could help police, call 101 or post @MetCC, or to remain 100% anonymous contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed ‘carried Viagra’ and ‘cherry picked’ women from Harrods shop floor, ex-employee claims
A former member of the Harrods management team has told how Mohamed al Fayed would “cherry pick” women from the shop floor.
Speaking to Sky News anonymously, the woman described the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, as “demonic” and said he “controlled everything with fear”.
Lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Fayed branded him a “monster” who was “enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” at a news conference on Friday.
The former employee of the luxury department store, which the Egyptian businessman took control of in 1985, worked at Harrods at the height of his power.
“We were all told Harrods is the greatest place on Earth – but he controlled everything with fear,” she said.
“The power dynamic was so strong, in the blink of an eye you would lose your career and they would try and destroy you. It was this dark psychological trap and everybody was caught.”
She said she heard stories Fayed, known to staff as “the chairman”, would grope people although she was never a victim herself.
Harrods department store in London. Pic: AP
“The chairman would walk around the store and he would cherry pick people from the shop floor, if you had blond hair and brown eyes you were favoured,” she said.
“He used to say, ‘I want that one up in my office now’. He used to carry Viagra around in his pocket, and people were so scared of his ‘floor walks’ – if you weren’t smiling enough you were in the shit, if you smiled too much you were also in the shit.”
Read more: Egyptian tycoon was never far from controversy
The ex-employee, who worked at Harrods in her first job after leaving university, said when women were called to Fayed’s office they “couldn’t say no”.
“I would sit her down and I would say I need to let you know what you are walking into,” she said.
“It’s suddenly a pay rise, and you’ll be invited to expensive events and lavished with expensive gifts but really you need to be aware of something.
“I said you will get invited to Park Lane, and parties where there will be lots of rich men, and you would be invited to sleep with people.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
She said she was once asked to see Fayed in his lounge-like office where he was wearing his slippers and said: “When are you going to come up and work for me here?”
The woman said she told him she did not want to work there and went back to her normal job.
“Afterwards he would smile at me and was courteous but then I started getting extra money in my pay packet. I went to the pay office and they said it’s a bonus for what you are doing. It didn’t last long but it happened just after he’d asked to meet him.”
The woman said she now feels “really conflicted” as she was “vulnerable too”.
“It was my first job leaving university. It leaves me feeling angry that we put up with things in that generation, that was our norm,” she added.
Harrods has said in a statement it is “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
A body has been found in the search for a missing hospital chaplain who starred in a Channel 4 documentary.
Katherine Watson, 50, was last seen in the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1pm on Thursday and Northumbria Police had become “increasingly concerned” for her welfare.
But after “extensive searches”, the force said a body had been found in the Jesmond Dene area of the city. Although formal identification has yet to take place, “it is believed to be Katherine”, they added.
“Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers,” it said.
“This is an incredibly sad outcome and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved ones at this difficult time. We will continue to support them in any way we can and we ask that their privacy is respected.”
Also known as Reverend Captain Katie Watson, she joined the army in her late teens, serving in Bosnia in the 1990s and as part of the Royal Military Police.
“Once you have seen genocide first-hand on the streets of a European country, there is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that,” she told the Church Times in 2022, as the Geordie Hospital documentary was first aired on Channel 4.
“I have seen the worst of humanity and I have seen, and continue to see, the very best of it.”
Ms Watson worked at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for more than 16 years and was made head of chaplaincy in 2020.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Channel 4’s documentary Geordie Hospital was a six-part series that filmed hospital staff through a shift, featuring a cast including porters, surgeons, dental nurses and chaplains.
Speaking about her role in the show, Ms Watson said: “We only have two things to offer, the gifts of time and presence, but we give them whole-heartedly.”
Read more on Sky News:
Parents die on Hawaii ‘babymoon’ holiday
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There was an outpouring of support online for Ms Watson following the news she was missing.
“She baptised our baby boy when he passed away at birth and presided over his funeral,” one person wrote on X. “She’s such a wonderful person who gave us unwavering support through our darkest hours.”
Another said: “The compassion and care you gave me and my family when our mum passed last year was a tremendous blessing and support.”
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