Labour MP Charlotte Nichols reveals she was raped at a work event

A Labour MP has bravely spoken of her own rape ordeal in the House of Commons.

Charlotte Nichols waived her anonymity to reveal for the first time she was raped after a work event she attended as a member of parliament.

Nichols said her attacker was acquitted at the Crown Court but ordered to pay her compensation after she won a civil case that recognises her as a ‘blameless victim of a violent crime’.

But she spoke of the emotional toll of waiting three years to get her case to court,a period in which she was sent abuse by strangers and trolled online.

In her speech,the MP for Warrington North accused the government of ‘weaponising’ survivors’ experiences to drive through plans to limit jury trials.

She told the Commons: ‘I waited 1,088 days to go to court.

‘Every single one of those days was agony,made worse by having a role in public life that meant that the mental health consequences of my trauma were played out in public,with the event that led to my eventual sectioning for my own safety still being something that I receive regular social media abuse from strangers about to this day.

‘But here’s the kicker: in this debate,experiences like mine feel like they’ve been weaponised and are being used for rhetorical misdirection,for what this Bill actually is.’

Charlotte Nichols said that instead of tackling the courts backlog,the government has ‘pit survivors and defendants against each other (Picture: Richard Gardner/Shutterstock)

She added: ‘We have been told that if we have concerns about this Bill,it is because we have not been raped or because we don’t care enough for rape victims. The opposite is true in my case,it is because I have been raped that I am as passionate as I am about what it means for a justice system to be truly victim-focused.

‘It is because I have endured every indignity that our broken criminal justice system could mete out that I care what kind of reform will actually deliver justice for survivors and victims of crime more widely.’

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