'My rapist can go to jail': U.K. woman crowdfunding for private prosecution

A woman in the U.K. is crowdfunding to bring her alleged rapist to court in a private prosecution, after the case was dismissed last year by the Crown.

Emily Hunt says she woke up “naked and terrified” next to a stranger at a hotel in 2015, five hours after she blacked out while out to lunch with her father. He had been visiting her from out of town, and the last thing she remembers before the hotel was when the conversation “started going a bit weird.” Hunt alleges she was drugged and raped after that, and that her alleged rapist recorded a video of her while she lay naked and unconscious on the bed.

“I had a complete and total blackout for 5 hours until I woke up in a hotel bed next to someone I’d literally never seen before,” she told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.

The U.K. Crown prosecutor cited a lack of evidence in dismissing the case, but Hunt says she’s still determined to bring her alleged rapist to justice. She’s now attempting to raise $168,000 so she can take her case and one other to court in a private prosecution.

“Here in the U.K., we have the right as an individual to hire a barrister and bring criminal charges against someone,” she said, adding that such cases can lead to the outcome as cases brought forward by the Crown – including the possibility of imprisonment.

“My rapist can go to jail,” she said.

Hunt says she knows the odds are stacked against her, because reported rape cases are on the rise in the U.K. while conviction rates are falling. But ultimately, she says her goal is to pressure the legal system to take rape more seriously.

“The Crown prosecution service approaches rape like it’s optional to prosecute and it’s really not, particularly given the evidence that rapists go on to do it again,” she said.

“Uncaught rapists, the majority, go on to do it again,” she added, citing a statistic that such individuals will rape an average of 5.8 women over their lives.

“I’m here trying to protect those other 4.8 woman from this man,” she said.

Hunt’s campaign, which was launched Oct. 21, has raised approximately $38,500 to date.