A rise in cease and desist letters being issued to survivors of sexual assault is having a chilling effect on women who speak out about sexual violence, the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding has said.
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Yardley, alongside leading women’s rights experts and lawyers, has said that the threat of legal action is being used to silence women. They say cease and desist letters in some cases are the first step to filing a defamation claim in the civil courts.
Defamation cases as a whole, in the UK, experienced a sharp rise in 2022, up from 152 in 2020 to 545 in 2021, according to Ministry of Justice data.
Phillips said there was “a worrying trend” where, after #MeToo and women being encouraged to take to social media to accuse their alleged abusers, they were subsequently having to deal with the ramifications of publishing their experiences.
Phillips said: “We have to warn people what to say and what not to say: it means people don’t own their stories any more.”
Verity Nevitt was 21 when she was first threatened with legal action after publishing her and her twin sister’s experience of sexual violence.
She said: “I posted on social media, I posted on Twitter and then about a month later I received a full on, aggressive, legal letter.”
Nevitt added: “They basically wanted to silence us completely, like they sent a couple of cease or desist letters to members of parliament who supported us including my own MP. Which is essentially just to threaten them, not to talk about it.”
Suzanne McKie KC, the founder of Farore Law, which specialises in discrimination, sexual harassment and employment law, said: “There has certainly been a rise in cease and desist letters, which would be sent ahead of any litigation being sent.”
She said: “I’ve come across cases where often the men track down the women’s home addresses to send the cease and desist letters – it seems likely there are personal investigators involved doing what is not legal.”
Harriet Wistrich, the founder and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “This is a concerning issue, and perpetrators will use any means to silence [women].”
She said: “What the threat of legal action means is that often it doesn’t even go to court – the threat and start of defamation procedures ensures that a lot of women will agree to shut up and retract what they have said.”
Throughout the whole process, Nevitt says she was made to feel “powerless”.
She said: “I felt completely powerless and silenced because it was so difficult. The whole process is so degrading and disempowering. Like there were times when we didn’t have enough money for our legal team, so we were litigants in person.”
Wistrich said: “This is one weapon men use to silence women they abuse.”
In the end, Nevitt said she couldn’t afford to continue with the legal court proceedings and so came to a settlement agreement.
Mckie said: “In UK law, the burden of proof lies with the defendant so it is the women’s responsibility to prove what she is saying is true.
“Arguably, in a case where someone has very little money and didn’t report the crime to the police initially, it is very difficult for them to prove what they are saying is true.”
Phillips said: “Often these women are so exasperated that nobody is listening to them they take to social media, and it’s dangerous for them.”
She said: “It is frightening that anyone can do anything and if someone wins a defamation case – it gives grist to the mill that women make it up. The whole system at the moment is frightening.”
Women’s rights campaigners are calling for the law to be reformed, and for there to be more financial aid to support women fighting legal battles.
Wistrich said: “There are different things to address, you can reform the law or provide legal aid – so the law can’t be used to stop women and silence women.”
Nevitt said: “Speaking out in the public interest and using free speech and freedom of expression is a right that outweighs an abusers right to privacy and to reputation, because that’s what it comes down to when a judge has to make a decision in a case, they’re weighing up those two rights.”
In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
