Raped woman held on to ‘guilt and shame’ for years but then took action to ‘show the world that no means no’ | UK news

A rape victim who felt “guilt and shame” for years before reporting her attacker told Sky News she had now “passed it on to him” after he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Warning: The following article contains details of serious sexual assault

The woman, who retains her right to anonymity, was raped by DJ Alisdair Randalls in December 2015 at the age of just 18.

She told Sky News she “never wanted to go to the police” but after years of suffering in silence, she realised she had to do something to prevent anyone else potentially coming to harm and to “show the world that no means no”.

Randalls, who was 21 at the time of the attack and is now 30, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of rape in a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in April.

He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on May 15th.

The woman, now 27, said: “I just felt like I had to help and lock people like him away. You can’t live in fear of these people.”

“I carried the guilt and the shame and all that with me forever, for years.

“And I passed it on to him. He can handle it now. It’s up to him to deal with it when he comes out.”

The couple had met on Tinder and flirted for about three weeks before Randalls encouraged the teenager to meet him at his apartment in Aberdeen after he had something to drink.

The woman said Randalls had previously been “flirtatious and talkative” and seemed like a “nice boy.”

However, when she changed her mind and didn’t want to have sex anymore, he ignored her pleas to stop and raped her.

During the attack he grabbed her by the throat.

The woman, who called Randalls a “devil and a beast,” confided in her roommate and a friend what had happened.

She was forced to undergo therapy because she could not cope with the consequences of the rape.

“I didn’t want to be here anymore”

The woman said: “I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t want to be here anymore. It was that bad.”

“It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced in my life. I couldn’t function.

“I felt guilty, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. I was angry. I thought, ‘Why me? Why did he choose me?’

“I cried the whole time. It was really terrible. I can’t really remember many emotions because I somehow repressed them.”

The woman saw Randalls on a nighttime outing about a year after the attack.

She said he grabbed her arm and tried to say hello, but she managed to escape and hide in the bathroom.

The woman finally reported Randalls in December 2021 and he was subsequently arrested and charged.

The woman said: “I felt like no one would believe me.”

However, she received support from the police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

She said: “They were so understanding. They took time for me. They were all very nice. They made me feel comfortable and not embarrassed.”

“The questioning by the defense attorney was personal”

The woman said the long wait for the trial had been difficult and that she had been “completely confused” in the run-up to the hearing.

In court, she was even completely surprised when she heard Randall’s name over the loudspeaker system.

The trial lasted four days and the woman felt the brunt of her defense attorney’s criticism as he attempted to exonerate his client.

She said: “It was a shock. Everyone warns you and says, ‘Oh, this is hard.’ But it was brutal.”

“It felt like it was personal. They say it’s not and it’s just his job, but it felt personal. It felt gross and he tried to discredit me in every way possible.”

“I had the feeling the judge took the matter seriously”

After sentencing, Judge Lord Colbeck said Randalls accepted “no responsibility” for his crime.

He added: “You show little or no insight into your offending conduct and the impact this had on your victim.”

In addition to the seven-year prison sentence, Randalls was banned from having any contact with the woman for life and was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

The woman said she was “shocked” by the verdict, saying: “I didn’t expect that. I was stunned, really. I felt like the judge took it seriously.”

The woman has been on dates since the attack, but is still “very, very cautious.”

She said: “I really thought he was a nice boy. But not knowing people’s true intentions scares me.”

The woman is aware that there are many others who have suffered similar attacks but are too afraid to reveal themselves.

She acknowledged that the legal process was “not easy” and that some aspects were “completely beyond our control”, but stressed that “these people cannot be left to walk around freely”.

“I have to show the world that no means no”

She said: “It’s a long process and it can be tiring to wait months or, in my case, years to get somewhere. Sometimes I thought it would never end.”

“Plus, I thought it was hard enough telling friends and family, but standing up and telling 20 strangers my story was when I felt the most vulnerable.

“I definitely went through several phases of re-traumatization and that made everything even more physically and emotionally exhausting.

“There were moments when I wanted to give up. All I could tell myself was that I had to do it, even if I didn’t want to do it.”

“I have to protect every single woman from him. I have to make this world a safer place. I have to protect the future of young girls from monsters like him. I have to hold him accountable for what he did. I have to show the world that no means no.”

“I was not guaranteed a positive result, nobody can, but you just have to try.

“If we don’t try, we won’t get anywhere. It’s such a cliché, but you don’t realize how strong you really are. If I can do it, anyone can.”

“You don’t have to deal with this alone”

Katrina Parkes, Scotland’s High Court sex offender prosecutor, praised the woman “for her courage” in reporting Randalls and helping to bring him to justice.

Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, urges anyone who needs support to come forward.

She said: “No matter how long ago it happened, if you have been a victim of sexual violence, you do not have to deal with it alone.

“If you are ready to talk, rape crisis services are happy to listen.”

Helplines if you need support:
• Rape crisis Scotland – 08088 01 03 02
• Rape crisis in England and Wales – 0808 500 2222
• Rape Crisis Network Ireland – 1800 778 888
• Rape crisis in Northern Ireland – 0800 0246 991