Ealing vicarage rape victim Jill Saward dies

Image copyright PA

A woman who became a sexual assault campaigner after she was raped during a burglary at her father's vicarage in 1986 has died.

Jill Saward, then 21, was sexually assaulted by two men in Ealing, west London. Her boyfriend and father Michael were severely beaten.

At the end of the trial of her rapists, the judge said her trauma "had not been so great", sparking outrage.

She was the first rape victim in the UK to waive her anonymity.

How vicarage rape case changed treatment of victims

Ms Saward, 51, who was also known by her married name Drake, had three sons and lived with husband Gavin in Hednesford, Staffordshire. She suffered a stroke.

In 1990, she published her memoir, Rape: My Story.

Four men broke into the vicarage home of Michael Saward in March 1986.

The churchman, who was at home with his daughter and her then-boyfriend David Kerr, answered the doorbell when it rang, only to be confronted by the knife-wielding intruders.

They broke into the house and, after demanding to know where the family kept their valuables, they attacked Mr Saward and Mr Kerr. Both men suffered serious injuries, including fractured skulls.

Two of the men then dragged Jill upstairs to a bedroom, where she was repeatedly raped.

The case was the focus of huge media attention, not least because the two rapists received substantially shorter prison sentences than the man convicted only of burglary.

Mr Justice Leonard, the Old Bailey judge who made the comment about the extent of Ms Saward's ordeal, was censured for the remark and apologised for it later in his life.

"That reflected how little understanding there was," she later said.

"I'd been suicidal three times, I'd had post-traumatic stress disorder, which wasn't really recognised then."

By speaking out about her ordeal, she vowed to help tighten rape laws and called for better victim support.

'Forgiveness important'

In 1994, she set up a help group for victims and their families, and also became a counsellor.

Among the causes she successfully campaigned for was the barring of accused rapists from cross-examining victims while representing themselves in court.

Ms Saward believed forgiveness was "very important".

"They'd destroyed enough, I didn't want them to destroy anything else. Forgiveness gave me that liberation, that freedom, to move on," she said.

In 1998, she came face to face with a member of the gang who devastated her life - but did not rape her - and told him: "You don't need to say sorry."

Ms Saward, who was born in Liverpool, spoke many times on TV and radio about rape and forgiveness, and in July 2008 she stood for election to Parliament against then shadow home secretary David Davis.

In 2012 she welcomed proposals for tougher sentences on sex offence offenders.

And in 2015, she called a suggestion by MPs for sex crime suspects to be granted anonymity "insulting".