Issue 57

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Issue 57 – Spring 2017 cheesegratermagazine.org

VIOLATED HARASSED IGNORED The tragic story of how UCL fails victims of sexual assault

Oumou Longley and Jason Murugesu

‘“They push you around the system until you give up. There is no system to help”. These are the words of a UCL medical student who was raped in her first year at university. Her story, alongside many others, exposes a pervading culture of sexual assault and violence that has been left unchecked by staff who simply aren’t equipped to take responsibility for the crisis.

The medic, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Cheese Grater how she failed her first year exams and battled with suicide and depression as a result of her experience. She first sought help from Student Psychological Services (SPS), who provided her with shortterm counselling. However, SPS can only provide interim support and are not trained or qualified to provide help to victims of sexual assault. The medic approached the Depart-

ment of Medicine’s Student Support, a separate entity to SPS, but found a system that was unhelpful and unfriendly. The staff member she saw described her as “rude and unpleasant” in an official report. Another student who was referred to the same staff member said that she was worried about seeing her attacker at Sports Night. She was told to “just stop going”. Continued on Page 3


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