Sexual assault: why reveal your name?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2019

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On January 17 2015 at California’s Stanford University a young woman went to a party. A few hours later, she was found unconscious beside a bin. She had been sexually assaulted. To protect her identity in court, the victim was known as Emily Doe. We knew little else about her. We knew a lot about her attacker: he was Brock Turner, a student and swimmer, and his sporting prowess became part of his defence. The case caught global attention when BuzzFeed published Emily Doe’s 7,000-word victim statement. The post received 11 million views in four days, yet the writer remained anonymous. Until now. This month Emily Doe revealed herself as Chanel Miller, a 27-year-old literature graduate and artist. In this episode we speak to BBC reporter, Lauren Turner, who met Chanel to talk about why she wanted the world to know her name. In the UK, the rape crisis national freephone helpline is 0808 802 9999. In the US, the national sexual assault hotline is 1-800-656-4673. Further information and support for anyone affected by sexual assault can be found through BBC Action Line Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Alicia Burrell and Harriet Noble Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:06.2	Hello, I'm Matthew Price.
0:07.7	This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.
0:09.9	Every day we ask one big question about one big story.
0:13.2	Today the first of two episodes on Sexual Assault, why reveal your name?
0:27.0	Today and tomorrow we're looking at sexual assault on campus at university.
0:37.0	Tomorrow we're going to look at what's being done to protect women here.
0:41.0	Today we're looking again at a story that you might remember from America.
0:46.3	Most people heard about it when Buzzfeed published the full statement that was read
0:49.6	out in court on behalf of a woman who'd been sexually assaulted at a university in the States.
0:55.6	All 7,000 words of it.
0:58.6	In four days, that BuzzFeed story got 11 million views. It was shared around the world, it was so powerful, people even held readings of the statement.
1:09.0	But that was all we knew.
1:12.0	A woman sexually assaulted assaulted who was referred to in court as Emily Doe to protect her identity.
1:19.0	We knew a lot about her attacker. He was Brock Turner, he was 19 years old, a Stanford University
1:26.0	student and a swimmer. That actually became part of his defense. What an amazing athlete he
1:32.2	was and how this shouldn't harm him too much.
1:35.0	But of Emily Doe, we only had that searing vivid statement.
1:39.5	Until she decided to talk publicly, write a book, reclaim her own identity until Emily Doe became
1:46.5	Chanel Miller. We're going to hear Chanel talking in a moment, her reading her own statement, and also the interview that the BBC's
1:54.9	Lauren Turner recorded with her for us in the States. When I'd read her victim
1:59.5	impact statement I'd just been completely blown away by it. It kind of really stuck in my mind. So I just
	...

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