Jill Saward

Jill Saward, also known by her married name Jill Drake (14 January 1965 – 5 January 2017) was an English campaigner on issues relating to sexual violence.

She was the victim of a violent robbery and rape in 1986 at a vicarage in Ealing, London, a crime for which the perpetrators' relatively lenient sentences led indirectly to changes in the law. Saward was the first rape victim in Britain to waive her right to anonymity.

Background

Saward was educated at Lady Margaret School in London. Her father, Reverend Michael Saward, became the vicar of St Mary's, Ealing, in 1978. She married Gavin Drake, and the couple lived in Hednesford, Staffordshire, with their three sons.

Ealing vicarage rape

Attack

On 6 March 1986, a gang of burglars broke into the Saward family's home at lunchtime. Jill's father and her then-boyfriend, David Kerr, were tied up and beaten, both suffering fractured skulls, while she was raped.

The incident received considerable international media coverage because the house was identified as that of the vicar of Ealing, and the attack was soon labelled by the media as the "Ealing vicarage rape". Saward was effectively identified as the victim of the attack by photographs published in '' The Sun'' four days later.

Trial and sentences

At the trial of the perpetrators in 1987, the judge, John Leonard, gave those responsible longer sentences for the burglary than for the rape, stating: "Because I have been told the trauma suffered by the victim was not so great, I shall take a lenient course with you". The leader of the three men, Robert Horscroft, who was not involved in the rape, received 14 years' imprisonment for burglary and assault. Martin McCall, the more violent of the two attackers, was sentenced to five years for rape and five years for aggravated burglary, while Christopher Byrne received three years for rape and five years for burglary and assault.

The sentence was criticised by senior British politicians of the time, including then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and opposition leader Neil Kinnock, while others complained that property was being valued more highly than a human body. Saward too complained about the sentences; in 1988, as a result of the case, a new law was passed that allowed appeals against unduly lenient sentences, and also closed a loophole that had previously only granted rape victims anonymity after a suspect was charged with the offence.

Criminologist Anthony Bottoms described the case as "a particularly striking example of some fault lines deeply embedded within the institutional structures of the English sentencing processes" of the time.

On his retirement in 1993, Leonard publicly apologised to Saward, saying his judgment at the trial was a "blemish – I make no bones about it".

Subsequent developments

Four days after the incident, '' The Sun'' published a photograph of Saward with just her eyes blacked out, as well as an image of her home on its front page, jeopardising her anonymity. The newspaper's editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, said he printed the images because a rape victim only earned the right to anonymity once a suspect had been charged with the offence. This led to the Press Council amending its guidelines and the closure of that legal loophole.

In 1990, with the help of friend Wendy Green, Saward wrote a book about her experiences, called ''Rape: My Story''. At the same time she featured in an ''Everyman'' programme for the BBC
...