My assault was leaked to the press - so I fought back - Lives Less Ordinary, BBC World Service

Video Description

Jenny got a role in her first feature film when she was just 19 years old. At a film party in London she became separated from her friends and was sexually assaulted by a public figure she'd just met. Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 https://bbc.in/3VyyriM At first she was too traumatised to report what had happened. But later, when other women came forward with similar stories about the same man, she finally felt able to go to the police. She provided a full testimony, but was shocked to see details from her police interview appear in a tabloid newspaper just a few days later. Jenny could not understand how this had happened, and the repeated tabloid stories about her led to a building sense of paranoia - she no longer knew who to trust. She eventually refused to talk to the police, the case against her attacker collapsed, and he was never prosecuted. Jenny decided to train as a journalist to discover what had really taken place between the police and the press. She teamed up with the well-known investigative journalist Nick Davies, and helped to uncover corruption in London's Metropolitan Police Service and illegal newsgathering practices by some national newspapers including phone-hacking and spying. Their investigations contributed to some high-profile resignations, and the closure of one of the newspapers at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal. Jenny eventually received an apology and substantial payout from the Metropolitan Police. This interview contains a description of sexual assault at the outset. Presenter: Asya Fouks Producers: Rebecca Vincent and Elena Angelides Video Producer: Beatrice Guzzardi Thumbnail photo credit: Josh Adam Jones 00:00 Coming up 00:51 Intro 01:36 Growing up in Wales and pursuing acting 03:12 The sexual assault 08:06 Reporting the assault to police 12:56 Finding her police statement in the newspapers 20:13 Dropping the case and discovering more leaks 22:36 Training as a journalist to investigate 24:03 Investigating phone hacking and press leaks 27:36 Discovering a private investigator was spying on her 30:27 Realising police leaked her statement to the press 33:08 Exposing newspaper corruption and stolen reports 34:56 Police officers paid to leak information 38:27 Receiving a police apology and settlement 39:19 Reflections on fighting back 41:02 Outro Watch more from Lives Less Ordinary on our YouTube playlist 👉🏽 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz_B0PFGIn4fxldjnO2SAJ-Lg-owG7RR_&si=sw23069eN__UaEmf ---------------- This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel. If you like what we do, you can also find us here: Instagram 👉🏽 https://www.instagram.com/bbcworldservice Twitter 👉🏽 https://twitter.com/bbcworldservice Facebook 👉🏽 https://facebook.com/bbcworldservice BBC World Service website 👉🏽 https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio Thanks for watching and subscribing! #BBCWorldService #WorldService #podcast #JennyEvans #leak #press #police