Abusers are using a sinister new route to silence their accusers. This is how we fought back – and won | Tamsin Allen

My client Nina Cresswell was sued for libel by the man who sexually assaulted her. She was vindicated – but I’m seeing a disturbing rise in these cases

When an abuse survivor finally summons the strength to tell their story, the solicitor’s letter threatening libel proceedings in response lands like a punch. That was how it felt for Nina Cresswell when she first read the letter suggesting she was a fantasist who had invented the account of her assault by the tattooist Billy Hay that she had published on her social media. The letter contained a threat to issue libel proceedings, which was carried out when Nina refused to apologise.

Nina had described how she had been violently assaulted 10 years earlier as she left a club after celebrating the end of her second year of university. The police had dismissed her, claiming her account was inconsistent, and refused even to investigate. No one had helped her to piece the events together and she had been too dispirited and traumatised to do anything more. But her conscience would not let her stay quiet. After the #TattooMeToo movement exposed other abusers in the industry, she went public – only to end up as the defendant in a libel claim.

Tamsin Allen is a partner at Bindmans

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/rOkm3be