Single mother who claims she was raped by a voyeur who escaped justice reveals her hopes of finally getting a conviction five years on – after CPS u-turn says filming her naked IS a crime
- Emily Hunt, originally from New York but a long-term UK resident, alleges she was drugged, raped and filmed naked in a hotel room on May 10th 2015
- Investigation saw her labelled ‘difficult’ by police and rape charges were dropped. However, the man did admit to filming Ms Hunt without her consent
- In January, the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to re-examine voyeur case
- Ms Hunt, 40, told FEMAIL she’s now hopeful of finally getting a prosecution
- She says her life has been ‘derailed’ by the quest for a conviction and she’s been diagnosed with PTSD and suffered a breakdown in the five years since the attack
A woman who alleges she was raped and then filmed naked while drugged by an obsessive voyeur has revealed her renewed hope that she may finally see her attacker prosecuted.
Mother-of-one Emily Hunt, 40, originally from New York but a long-term resident of the UK, has spent five years fighting to get justice since the alleged attack on May 10th 2015.
Ms Hunt believes that she was raped after she woke up naked beside a stranger in a hotel room following a family lunch several hours earlier. However, while an arrest was made after the attack, rape charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Despite almost giving up on the hope that her alleged perpetrator would instead be charged with voyeurism in 2019, she says she’s now optimistic a conviction could happen, after the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to re-examine the case earlier this year.
A one-minute video of Ms Hunt lying naked and unconscious on a bed was found in the possession of her accused, who admitted recording it for his own sexual gratification. Previously, the CPS had told Ms Hunt it would not prosecute.
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Emily Hunt, 40, a New Yorker who’s a long-term resident of the UK, told Femail she’s now optimistic about a prosecution for voyeurism against her alleged attacker, five years after she says she was filmed, while naked and unconscious, by a man for his own sexual gratification in a hotel room
Mother-of-one Ms Hunt, who was diagnosed with PTSD and suffered a breakdown in the five years since the attack, says the CPS have agreed to reexamine her case on June 1st after the courts begin to re-open following lockdown
The CPS has now said it will re-assess its decision not to charge the man for filming Ms Hunt without her consent.
Speaking today, Ms Hunt, who is represented by the Centre for Women’s Justice, told Femail that she had feared the pandemic would further delay her request for charges to be made.
She said: ‘Initially, I was worried that the impact of lockdown on the courts might mean further delays and uncertainty but with the news that the justice system is now opening up again I am again hopeful that the right decision will finally be taken in my case.’
She added: ‘After five years, will my attacker will finally be charged?’
In 2017, Ms Hunt waived her anonymity in a bid to highlight how she’d been labelled ”obstructive’ and ‘difficult’ by police dealing with her case. She said the police had missed vital evidence that could have seen a conviction in the days after the attack.
After trying to raise £100,000 to privately prosecute her alleged rapist, the Crown Prosecution Service had said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for a realistic prospect of a guilty verdict, a decision upheld by a further review.
Lengthy battle: The potential for a prosecution for voyeurism comes after five years of fighting after the CPS originally said it would not look for a conviction
Data analyst Ms Hunt, pictured with her daughter, ten: she says the quest for a voyeurism conviction has ‘derailed’ her life
The CPS decided it would re-examine Ms Hunt’s case after the body took an opposing view on voyeurism in a case with similar circumstances in January this year
However, in January this year, before a judicial review of her case was scheduled to be heard, the CPS took an opposing view on voyeurism in a case with similar circumstances, leading the body to agree to re-examine Ms Hunt’s case.
She told the Independent at the time: ‘The CPS has treated me inhumanely from beginning to end. I was diagnosed with PTSD. I had a breakdown. This has completely derailed the last five years of my life.
‘If only the CPS had dealt with this properly from the beginning. Hopefully, they charge him. He could go to prison for voyeurism, which is a maximum of two years and then he could be on the sex offenders register as that is where he belongs.’
This week, the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, announced that the court system would begin to open up again following lockdown.
On Twitter on May 10th, Ms Hunt wrote: ‘Five years ago today, I was drugged and raped by a stranger, who then videoed me naked and unconscious. 5 years. Bring on June 1, let’s hope he’s finally charged!’
She added earlier: ‘I am desperate to see my attacker finally be charged – and sex offences should still be prosecuted as a priority right now because they are serious crimes – but I also know that the courts are struggling right now. I’m happy to wait if it means that the CPS finally do the right thing.’
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