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Women's rights campaigner Patsy Stevenson slams police response after being threatened with revenge porn
19 April 2024, 15:55 | Updated: 19 April 2024, 16:22
Women’s rights campaigner Patsy Stevenson says she was threatened with revenge porn - but police won’t do anything about it.
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Ms Stevenson has spoken to LBC about how distressing the situation has been, and of the police response.
The activist was amously photographed being arrested at a candlelit vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham in March 2021.
Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by serving Met Officer Wayne Couzens earlier that month.
Ms Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid were later awarded payouts and apologies following a lengthy legal battle with the force.
Patsy Stevenson Interview
Ms Stevenson said last year she became invoved with a man who had a girlfriend, to whom she sent an intimate photo.
They ended communication with each other after he said he wouldn't leave his girlfriend.
However, the man later contacted her with an "aggressive message", which led to threats of revenge porn.
Ms Stevenson said she had not contacted him for months, yet he reached out to her to leave him and his girlfriend alone.
"I hadn't messaged her at all, I wasn't trying to break them up," she said. She said he then threatened her over text
"Your photo that you sent me with any photo off your Instagram will verify it's you", a screenshot from their conversation shows.
She added when she pointed that that is revenge porn and illegal he replied with "try your luck" and "take me to court".
Ms Stevenson said she thought he was a "nice guy" adding they would have conversations in the pub about feminism.
I’m done being silent about this. I was threatened with revenge porn and police have said they won’t do anything because he said he didn’t intend to cause me distress. pic.twitter.com/vf5aTzNGMO
— Patsy Stevenson (@PatsyeStevenson) April 18, 2024
The campaigner contacted Surrey Police saying she had to ring the force many times for updates on the case - which they closed.
She was told that the man had said he just wanted her to leave him alone, which Ms Stevenson denies. She said that he initally contacted her.
She added he told police he did not mean to "upset" her and therefore this does not show intent to distress or harm - so the case was closed. LBC has seen this correspondence.
The Online Safety Bill removed the need to prove ‘intent’ on 31st January 2024, but because incident happened in July 2023, this incident falls under domestic abuse act.
The offence was recorded as malicious communication, however threats to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress is an offence under Section 69 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
She added police said the law cannot be applied retroactively and that an officer even said, with the new law, sharing an explicit image could be considered a crime.
Ms Stevenson said he had asked her to send the photo and it is not comparable to explicit images which are sent by strangers unsolicited.
Ms Stevenson said she has had "nightmares" about him coming to her front door, and says some people have called her a "liar".
"It's just a classic thing that happens to women," she said, adding it happens to a lot of people.
A spokesperson said: "In July 2023, Surrey Police received a report of malicious communications. This was thoroughly investigated at the time and officers found no crime had taken place.
"No further action was taken."
Jess Eagelton, from the charity Refuge, said: “Intimate image abuse is a deeply violating and devastating form of abuse that has a profound impact on the mental health and physical safety of women and girls.
"Whenever intimate images are shared, or a perpetrator threatens to share them without consent, it causes emotional distress to the survivor.
"While the act of sharing or threatening to share intimate images has been a crime since 2015 and 2021 respectively, police have continued to overlook the severity of this type of abuse and charging rates have remained woefully low, despite a significant increase in reports of intimate image abuse being made to the police."
Research from Refuge, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, found that the number of intimate image offences reported increased by 26% from 2019 to 2020, and again by 40% between 2020 and 2021. Yet, in only 4% of cases between January 2019 and July 2022 were charges brought against the perpetrator.
The survivors that Refuge supports have continually told us that police do not take their reports of intimate abuse seriously. This is especially true for those who are reporting threats to share. This needs to change. The police need to respond to reports of these types of crimes adequately and treat them like the serious crimes they are.
Since the introduction of the new offences in the Online Safety Act in January there is no longer a requirement to prove that the perpetrator intended to cause distress in threats to share intimate image abuse cases. Instead, they need to prove the perpetrator wanted the survivor to fear the threat would be carried out.
"It’s alarming to Refuge that police do not appear to be updated on this legislative change. It’s clear that proper training within the police on intimate image abuse is needed.
"If you have experienced intimate image abuse Refuge is here for you. We will believe you and are here for you 24 hours a day on 0808 2000 247."
