Justice For Gaia

Please donate whatever you can to support my work for justice for Gaia, to save lives like hers in future and work towards a world where all survivors are respected, protected and heard. You can also help by:

1. Sharing this crowdfunder to help spread the word

2. Sign our petition for a specialist rape unit in Dorset

3. Join the call for the Gaia Principle for rape justice nationally with our quick letter writing tool

4. Sign this INQUEST petition to help stop preventable deaths in our communities

One of the longest in British history, the inquest into Gaia’s death exposed the devastating impact of austerity cuts and a culture of misogyny within the police, social care and NHS services, unearthing over 50 failings as well as police officers who tampered with evidence.

I worked with the family and leading human rights organisations like INQUEST, Rape Crisis, the Gemini Project and the Centre for Women’s Justice to develop the Justice For Gaia manifesto with ten demands that will help save lives like Gaia’s in future - but I need your support to continue this work.

Gaia’s Story

Gaia was a kind, bright and brave young woman whose struggles with epilepsy and post-traumatic stress inspired her to pursue a career in healthcare. (Learn more about her here .) She died aged 19 within two years of reporting to Dorset Police that she had been a victim of child sexual exploitation.

As soon as Gaia reported the rape, psychiatrists were making notes about her “delusions of sexual assault”. Despite recurrent mental health crises, in those two years, she spent less than two months under the care of community mental health services which she was still trying to access on the day she went missing. She even called for an ambulance that day, which never came.

Gaia went missing during an acute mental health episode just as it was getting dark on 7 November, 2017 and was without her coat, wallet, phone or epilepsy medication. The inquest found this was caused by what they called a “situational crisis”: a polite way of saying she wasn’t getting support for her mental health, had suffered ongoing threats and sexual harassment and had been met with continued discrimination and apathy from the police.

Alongside family and friends, I coordinated one of the largest public search operations ever in the UK while she was missing. 11 days later her body was found, by which time she had died of hypothermia.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) identified serious failings in the rape investigation and mental health experts said that had Gaia not been traumatised by this, she would probably still be alive.

We also uncovered shocking failings in the police investigation into Gaia’s disappearance. Calls Dorset Police initially denied the existence of, revealed that the officer she spoke to on the day she went missing – who was not trained to recognise signs of a mental health crisis – had hung up on her, telling colleagues she was “talking absolute rubbish,” “taking the piss” and playing a hoax.

When she went missing shortly afterwards they failed to log her as a missing person or identify her as high risk. The sergeant in charge that night was disciplined for misconduct because he did not take or order any action to search for Gaia that first night when she might still have been found alive.

Why We Need You

Despite all of this, Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin banned the jury from even considering whether police failings contributed to Gaia’s death, taking eight weeks of evidence off the table.

Though she denied Gaia justice in court, she recognised the risk of future deaths due to the systemic failings exposed by the inquest and wrote to an unprecedented 10 institutions with recommendations for lifesaving change.

These included one to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, for better and more joined-up care for people with complex needs like survivors of sexual violence; and one to the College of Policing for better training on physical and mental health conditions that might affect behaviour or risk – ignorance of which most often contribute to the deaths of Black men in custody. But no one is taking responsibility for making sure those changes are actually made.

So ended the investigation we had waited five years for - and that’s why we need your support.

It’s too late for Gaia and the lives of those who loved her will never be the same, but I don’t want this to happen to anyone else, ever. So, I’m teaming up with the Gemini Project to keep up the fight. We are 100% grassroots and funded by public donations.

We can’t do it alone but together, we can save lives next time.

Why it matters

We want to put an end to preventable deaths in our communities by making sure that everyone who needs it has access to justice and access to support.

Access to justice

Only 2 in 10 rape survivors report to the police and of those who do, less than 1 in 100 secure a conviction. Conviction rates are lower today than they were in the 1970s and the more you need support to access justice, the less likely you are to get it. People with mental health issues are 40% less likely to have their case referred for prosecution. Those with learning difficulties see their chances reduced by 67%.

Access to support

Many people and almost half of women who experience severe mental distress are survivors of sexual violence. Yet the support they need to rebuild their lives has become a privilege determined by a postcode lottery.

Government austerity has forced most rape crisis centres to cut services or close down and there are more than 10 000 survivors on the waitlist for counselling. More broadly, austerity cuts on public services had already been linked to over 130 000 preventable deaths by 2019.

Justice For Gaia already achieved a lot:

Please help continue the fight for justice for all of us.