Letter: Sex Harassment Is No ‘Badge of Honour’, But Every Woman’s Experience

Published on: 27 Mar, 2021
Updated on: 27 Mar, 2021

From: Peta Malthouse

In response to: Guildford MP Backs Decision to Support Controversial Police Bill

I have read all Angela Richardson says about her decision to support the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. That she cannot have read it seems clear to me. But if she had, she did not understand the impact of the provisions which seek to give police more control over organisation of demonstrations.

That and the provision in which a special criminal offence of damaging a statue has been introduced, are disproportionate.

Sadly, a Bill that in all likelihood could have passed through the House with broad agreement is now in dispute because the government decided to slip these ill-advised provisions into a Bill that has been awaited a very long time.

The Bill says a lot but does not do enough. It simply exacerbates the sentencing issues between rape and other serious offences by failing to address them.

She is not the only woman who has been sexually assaulted/harassed and cannot wear it as a “badge of honour”. That is every woman’s experience.

One of mine was on market day in North Street in the Seventies, when a young man thought it would be fun to squeeze my left breast as I walked down the street at about 8.45am. I was too shocked to do anything about it.