Dear Ben

I would like to thank you for forwarding me Norman Baker's

response to my letter about my concerns regarding the lack of
support for male victims of rape/sexual and domestic violence.

The CTS Reference is M3033/14
Your reference is C/Ind/ROB101046.

I would be very grateful if you could pass this letter on to Norman
Baker.

Norman Baker states that the Governent is committed to tackling
sexual offences, that every report of rape is treated seriously, every
victim is treated with dignity and every investigation to be conducted
thoroughly and professionally. I was just wondering if this applies
when investigating female teachers who sexually abuse their male
students. The reason I am asking is because I don't find anything
dignified or professional about a comment made by a barrister
stating her client was slightly immature and who fell in love with the
wrong man. Now as far as I am aware anyone under the age of 18 is
a child and so the"infatuated drama teacher" Kelly Burgess didn't fall
in love with the wrong man,She abused her position of trust and that
of her student. The case stated she "had a fling" with the student and
later "had sex with him in a hotel room" This case which can be
viewed here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2598934/Infatuated-woman-teacher-26-took-16-year-old-pupil-
hotel-break-sex-school-training-weekend.html highlights just how
differently female sex offenders and male victims are viewed by the
media but more importantly barristers. Would it be appropriate for a
barrister to have said that Jeremy Forrest fell in love with the wrong
woman? These young boys who are victims of child sexual
exploitation and abuse are made out to sound like they are in a
consensual loving relationship with their teacher. They have had sex
in hotel rooms, they have had flings, they had had affairs but when it
is a female victim they are groomed and raped. I can not see
therefore how the government is ensuring male victims are treated
with respect when their abuse is not even recognised as their
abusers gets a suspended sentence for falling in love with the wrong
man. This is absolutely disgraceful language to use when you are
talking about child sex abuse and if this language had been used
with Jeremy Forrests victim there would of been total uproar with
every womens rights charity creating a storm over it. It seems a
victim deserves to be treated with dignity but only if they are female.
If its a male victim the media and even barristers down play what has
happened and even go as far as making ignorant observations and
saying she had a fling.

Norman Baker also highlighted in 2011 the home office committed
225k to support services that support male victims of sexual and
domestic violence over the next two years. He said 12 services had
secured funding to offer dedicated and specialist services for male
victims. He was even helpful enough to provide me with a link to
such information. The
website https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/ending-violence-
against-women-and-girls-in-the-uk is absolutely fantastic in
highlighting the approaches the government are making in tackling
violence against women and girls. It highlights the research being
done in how best to tackle male violence against women and girls.
The new Clare's Law highlights how women can check out the
criminal record of a new partner and what is being done about
female genital mutilation. The document is so informative I forgot I
was actually looking at what Norman Baker claimed to be
information on dedicated and specialised services for male victims. It
took me a very long time to find a very small paragraph amongst the
pages aimed at women to find a list of the 12 organisations that are
funded to help men. I guess what he means by specialist help is the
fact survivors UK are one of the 12 places funded to help men. This
was the only specialist service dedicated to male victims. The other
organisations have whole websites aimed at giving advice and
support to women and girls who have been raped or sexually abused
and victims of domestic violence. At best they say men can be
victims and they provide support - as specific as that. At worst there
is no mention of helping male victims so I guess men are suppose to
look at these feminist pages and think yes this will be a good place
to receive support. Then the womens aid charities who are funded to
help men may offer a outreach scheme to offer emotional support
but how many offer refuge space to men and boys? It seems that the
services that have been chosen to offer specialised and dedicated
support to men are services that firstly prioritise women. Can
Norman Baker actually give me a full explanation as to why these
charities were chosen to offer specialist help to men as there are
other charities that would of in my opinion been in a better position
to offer this. Survivors Manchester, the blast project, Mens Aid, Men
have rights too, the ManKind initiative, Male Survivors South West all
provide dedicated and specialised support services to male victims
and are often run by male survivors. This to me would of been a
more suitable option then men having to make do with feminist
organisations who are simply trying their best to understand men to
can be victims, while prioritising women. The funding that was ring
fenced to offer specialist support should of gone to specialist
services that help men. Has any one actually checked what support
womens aid is providing to men? Or what support rape crisis centres
are offering to men as many don't help men?

Then Norman highlights that in 2013 Damien Green the Victims
Minister agreed to allocate 2million to support victims of sexual and
domestic violence. The government has committed 500,000 for the
male rape fund which I agree goes some way in helping the 72,000
male victims of sexual violence. Of course I am sure the Ministry of
Justice will agree with me when I say that this figure can only be a
estimate because like women many men don't report their rape and
abuse. This means that when you think about it even though
500,000 goes some way in helping male victims get the support
they deserve it is only going to be scratching at the surface. I fear
what is going to happen is there is going to be a post code lottery
with some areas being relatively equipped to dealing with male
survivors and other areas not being able to help at all. While most
major towns and cities in the UK have a rape crisis service that help
women and most help girls over a certain age, most do not help
boys and men. These services are the ones that got most of the
additional funding. Only 25% of the funding went to helping male
victims. To make it fair it should of been 50%. Yes statistically women
and girls suffer from sexual and domestic violence more so it would
make sense there is more support for women and girls but who
knows the true extent of male victims. A Bristol Police Officer
commented recently saying up to 90% of male victims didn't report
their rapes. In a year Bristol Constabulary investigated 73 male rapes.
That could mean in one city there is over 120 victims and so
nationwide the statistic could be way over the estimated 72,000. The
500,000 isn't going to mean that every major city or town has a
specialised service for male victims For example in Cornwall the rape
crisis service that helps women and girls do not help men and boys.
The Esteem project that was the only service that supported male
victims of domestic and sexual violence lost its funding and closed
down this year. That actually means a whole county is without a
service for male victims or survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
This highlights just how much more funding is needed to ensure
men and boys receive the same support women and girls do. Esteem
was actually going to be opening a mans refuge, the only one in the
whole of the south west and now this fantastic opportunity to help
men and boys has gone - even with the 500,000. Cities like
Manchester will fair much better as they already have a dedicated
service for men. Still I guess it is the first time the government has
ever allocated money specifically for mens services and for now they
have to make it spread very thinly.

Norman Baker quite rightly highlighted I suggested there needs to
be a helpline for male victims. If my letter had been read correctly he
would of realised I meant for victims of domestic NOT sexual
violence. Women have access to a 24 hour helpline of which they can
ring for help and support and access to emergency accommodation.
I feel men should have the same. Men shouldn't just have to put up
with the very few helplines for men that run between 9-5. It is
recognised women need help at any time day and night and this
should also be the case for men. Norman has highlighted there is a a
helpline, Survivors that help and support male victims of sexual
violence. I guess given the fact there are at least 72,000 male victims
all potentially looking for support the line must be very busy during
the 7 hours a week it is open. Again if a woman is looking for
support there is the national rape crisis help line that can be
contacted every day from 12-2.30 and from 7-9.30. While women
have a helpline offering support 5 hours every day men have to
make do with 7 hours a week. Again it is a case of we can recognise
women need to have access to support but the support offered to
men is very scarce.

Another website Norman Baker pointed out was
the http://thisisabuse.direct.gov.uk. Here I could find a whole array of
information about domestic violence in teen relationships and about
consent. Again as with all campaigns I was quite frankly appalled to
see that every video was about a teenage girl suffering at the hands
of a teenage boy. Not one video highlighted that a boy could be a
victim and a girl can be a perpetrator. This is suppose to be an
educational site discussing healthy relationships. All I came away
with was the opinion of teenage girls deserve the right to a healthy
relationship and if they are being abused they are encouraged to
seek help but no mention of what boys can do. All this is doing is
reinforcing the stereotype of girl is victim and boy is perpetrator.
This site in my opinion would not encourage a teenage boy to come
forward and seek help and this is the case on a wider scale. All rape
crisis campaigns and police campaigns show a female victim. Few
show a male victim and I am yet to see one that highlights women
can rape - even if not legally woman can and do force men women
and children into sex. My very own story highlights
this http://everydayvictimblaming.com/submissions/why-is-my-rape-
not-acknowledged/#comments. Norman Baker states it is important
male victims feel able to come forward and report their crimes and
get support. He is absolutely correct. I am not sure how the current
campaigns are encouraging this. All they are telling young boys is
girls get abused by boys. The rape ones simply tell men only women
are raped. Social media has a huge impact on society and in this case
I fear it is having a negative impact. These sexist websites do nothing
but tell us boys and men are not abused. I have read similar
comments to some of the videos and so I am not the only one who
found the videos to be sexist stereotypical and only of help if you are
a girl.

So all in all Norman Bakers letter has not assured me the
government is working hard to support male victims of domestic and
sexual violence. All it has done is reinforced what I already knew and
that is the governments priority is women and girls but to look like
they are acting in a non discriminatory and gender neutral way they
throw in the odd helpline number for men and boys. There is still no
government policy aiming to end violence against all, just violence
against women and girls. The legal definition of rape needs to be
extended so that women who force a person to have sex is also
charged with rape. Rape is the only crime that can't apply to both
men and women. If a man or woman kills someone they are both
charged with murder. If they rob a bank they are both charged with
robbery but when a woman forces someone to have sex she has her
crime minimised to sexual assault or assault by penetration. This
suggests the government and the legal system fails to recognise the
damage caused by women who quite frankly get away with rape. The
letter from Norman also highlighted that if men were looking for
support they have to read a whole array of information often on sites
which state the man is the abuser before they get to a paragraph
that will be of some use to them. This doesn't suggest the
government are working hard to support male victims it suggests
they don't really care. A crying shame because if I was to have a son
and daughter who were abused I would want them both to be
supported. I wouldn't want either to feel their experience didn't
matter. I would want them both taught about healthy relationships. It
seems my daughter would be taught no means no and a boy should
respect that. My son should also be taught no means and a girl
should respect that.

A long way to go I am afraid before I agree the government and
services are working hard to support victims - unless they are female
of course.

Michaela Robinson

Please take a look at my justgivings page

http://www.justgiving.com/michaela-robinson1