In 2011, Lucy Walsh was abducted by three men after a night out. They raped her repeatedly, laughing when she cried out. Two were convicted and sentenced; police are looking for the third attacker. But the two successfully appealed and were given less prison time. And one of them was granted British citizenship while in jail. Fearful for her safety with an attacker still at large, Lucy has fled to Canada.
Attackers: Rezgar Nouri, 27, and Mohammed Ibrahim, 23, laughed as they repeatedly raped Lucy
Lucy Walsh woke up in a dimly lit, grubby room she didn’t recognise. She quickly realised, to her horror, that she was naked, and that she was not alone.
A man was on top of her, pinning her to the floor, while another raped her. There were others there, too, talking in a foreign language, and laughing when she screamed in terror and pain. The 24-year-old was subjected to a horrific two-hour attack, as the men took it in turns to rape her.
It’s a story that will strike horror into the hearts of parents and young women everywhere: a young local government officer whose only ‘crime’ was to find herself momentarily alone in a town centre in the early hours.
But the repercussions for Lucy went far beyond the physical injuries she sustained that night. It would destroy her faith in her country and its legal system, which she’d always trusted to protect her, but which seemed to her to favour the rights of her attackers above hers.
Her ordeal was described by a judge as ‘among the worst to have come before this court in recent years’ – yet in a sick irony, one of her attackers was granted British citizenship as he awaited trial.
It’s probably not surprising to hear that Lucy has moved almost 4,000 miles away to Canada, and says: ‘I don’t know if I can ever come back to Britain.’
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