Women vs The State, Manchester 8 May 2022

Portraits, her-stories and hope

Someone’s Daughter is The View’s campaign and portrait exhibition of women across the justice system.  Some are former judges and high profile barristers or activists, others former prisoners and campaigners. All  are resilient and brave. 

The View magazine hosted a panel of discussion on how the justice system is letting women down at Photo North on Sunday, 8 May 2022 with Zayna Iman, Gail Hadfield Grainger, Mags McNally and Samantha Asumadu. 

Zayna was known to Greater Manchester Police as a victim of domestic abuse. Zayna had been drinking at home alone and rang a friend, who called emergency services requesting a welfare check, expecting them to send an ambulance. They were asking for help for her. 

Instead she was arrested. She was  detained by Manchester police for 40 hours and and  says that she was repeatedly drugged and raped by the police.

Before sending an ambulance they sent two vans and one police car, with 4 male officers and one female who forced their way into her home and detained her. She was brought in a van by two male policemen, she passed out in the van, the 7 minute journey to the station took one hour and 23 minutes. 

When in the station she was aggressively held down by 4 officers, who cut  off her clothes and strip searched her, all while she was unconscious and handcuffed.

Her friends spent hours trying to find her, but were given no information about her whereabouts or her condition. Eventually they were told she was fine, but three hours later she was taken to a psychiatric ward. 

The evidence from police footage and the hospital reports exhibit  date rape drugs, sore nipples and throat, anal and vaginal bleeding. These horrific claims and  the accompanying evidence should make it straightforward for Zayna to get  justice and support, but have instead been met with greater efforts to cover up what happened. 

Zanya said “The level of cover up involved and amount of people and manpower used to try to shut me up, this wasn’t the first time it’s happened.”

The obstacles experienced by Zayna in seeking justice are shocking, the police have withheld 4 hours of body cam footage without explanation. The Rape Crisis Centre works alongside Greater Manchester Police and advised her not to pursue them, even NGOs  and charities in the sector who are meant to help women refused to be involved. 

Zayna carried on speaking about her traumatic experience and chose to waive her right to anonymity, as she felt she had already lost everything, that night. She continued to share her story and  send letters to organisations, until finally she found one that listened. 

Gail and Maggs  from Hadfield Grainger McNally saw her letter and responded. Their legal firm focuses on seeking justice rather than on monetary gain, and focuses on helping those who have been let down by the justice system. Without their help she would not have been able to afford legal support, another obstacle faced by so many who have been harmed by police or prison officers.  

Zayna said feels lucky to have remembered some of that night, because she was starting to wonder if she had lost her mind, but many don’t remember. And these police officers are still working, they have not been suspended and worse still they are in a station that trains new officers. The male officer who committed the crime is the officer she has to request the video footage from so there will be  a clear conflict of interest.

Regarding Zayna’s case, Maggs said, “ this is going to be all over the press and she is going to get justice.”

Gail is her legal representative, and said the footage is shocking, it shows her coming in and out of a drugged state, and naked and bleeding in a cell. She is seen covering herself and crying before the footage cuts out. 

When there is a breakdown of trust in police, state and prison it shatters the mental state of the victims and people lose all faith in the system. By refusing footage and impeding investigations the officers  are preventing closure and continuing the trauma and the harm . 

Gails has her own traumatic experience with police brutalitiy, her partner was murdered by police. She began to study law in a pursuit of justice, and  found that it is usually men who are killed by police. She ponders on the state of women left behind –  a mother, a wife, a child? The officer who murdered her husband was promoted during the investigation. The women victimised  by police brutality are not given any funding or support. Since pursuing the legal case against the police they have refused to provide any protection for Gail although she has gone through some harrowing experiences herself. She rang the police when she was stalked, threatened and burgled but they never came.

She says, “ I find the police are a bit of a cult  who disrupt any cases against them with the ministry of justice.The justice system is a man’s world and sexual assault in prison is still not seen as a priority.”

Samantha Asumadu is a renowned and persistent crisis journalist and activist, who says that generations of working class people are in prison for minor crimes under antiquated and unlawful IPP ( Indeterminate Public Protection) sentences.  Regardless of their sentence and tariff, they are kept in prison until a Parole board allows them to leave. But prison has such a detrimental effect on mental health that previously healthy people are then deemed mentally unfit, and their sentence indefinitely extended.

 She describes the case of Charlotte who was meant to be in prison for 18 months, she died in a prison cell seven years after her sentence was meant to end.In that time the prison authorities decided she had a personality disorder, something she didn’t have prior to her incarceration. She called her sentence a death sentence, and it was.During the last few months of her life the prison gave her drugs to treat the disorder they had diagnosed, and complained she wasn’t engaging in the things they wanted her to do. They claimed she  died of natural causes, she was 38.

When investigating similar cases  Sam said she found a pattern: guards were adding false crimes to prisoners’ files, things they couldn’t have done, like committing crimes outside while in jail. Oftentimes this is done to avoid paying compensation.Samantha stated that “police and councils work together to oppress vulnerable women”, and they use sectioning to do that. 

Maggs said their office is dealing with so many repulsive crimes just like Zayna’s, and the victims are all female. Women  in prison are not protected by the Human Rights Act  in the way they should be. Inmates raped by officers are punished for making allegations, even when impregnated by officers.

The power dynamics in a prison, where a female is incarcerated and a male officer is in charge makes consent impossible. What can we do to protect vulnerable women who are fighting against the state to have their rights observed? 

The strength and tenacity  of these women in their pursuit of justice is inspirational. Join our campaign Women vs The State, calling for root and branch reform of every aspect of the justice system and how it is harming women.   Email us now for further information on how you can get involved :

admin@theviewmagazine.org

Thanks to Annaelle Sourrisseau, Helen Birkmyre and Abigail Polaine for their tireless volunteering and making The view’s participation possible and to all of our panellists for sharing your stories with such honesty and candour.