A woman whose common-law spouse was convicted of sexually assaulting her says she wanted her name revealed to the public, so her attacker would not remain anonymous while awaiting his appeal.
Shannon Graham of Bridgewater, N.S., says she's frustrated that her ex was granted an appeal, after he was found guilty of assaulting her and sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars. She says she decided to speak out when he was released to await the appeal, two months into his sentence. But to do so, she had to first ask a judge to lift the publication ban on her name.
"It was granted because the lawyers really had no arguments of why I shouldn't get it lifted," Graham told CTV News Channel on Thursday. "He was able to walk around the community and nobody knew who he was or what he did," Graham said.
Graham learned of the publication ban on her name a few weeks ago, when she contacted CTV News to speak out about her case. She couldn't appear on-air to discuss the case while under the ban, which is automatically put in place for all alleged victims of sexual assault.
Graham says she doesn't need the protection of a publication ban, and she's not worried about suffering any repercussions from being publicly identified. "The person who assaulted me, he can't be around me anyway," she said. "I'm not too worried about the protection around my name."
She added that she's frustrated by the justice system's appeal process, and wishes now she hadn't reported the assault in the first place.
"The entire process, basically, it does nothing but make the victim feel more like a piece of evidence that the court uses to support their case, than an actual person," she said.
Graham called the appeal a slap in the face, and suggested it would be better if the justice system used a one-and-done model for trials. "Why have two processes when you can make it into one and save two trials?" she said.
