20. Women vs The State (Panel 8 May 2022 at Photo North, Manchester)

Send us Fan MailIn today’s episode, we present some excerpts from our Women vs The State live talk that took place at the Photo North Festival in Manchester in the first week of May 2022. In the panel, we had the pleasure of hearing from Gail Hadfield Grainger, whose partner was unlawfully murdered in an extra-judicial killing by Greater Manchester Police, Mags McNally, her law partner, their client Zayna and crisis campaigner and journalist Samantha Asumadu.Zayna talks about her experience with the Greater Manchester Police. In the podcast she explains that she was drugged and raped. In February, she was intoxicated and felt unwell, so she called her friend Richard, then he called 999. He asked for an ambulance; however, the Manchester police turned up first.Zayna says, “I sometimes blame myself.”She flashed the officers from inside the property while they were still outside. That was when her door flew open, and she accidentally knocked off the female officer’s glasses. The officers put her in their car with them as she passed out. After 7 hours, she had no record of what happened. Unfortunately, she did not regain her memories till the end of March. After being discharged from the hospital, she wanted to recall what had happened to her and she submitted a Subject Access Request form. All she wants is her legal rights to be observed, and to find out what the officers did to her that day. Gail says they should have had her on a mental health observation, health checks etc while with the police. Clients in the same situation as Zayna have lost their faith in the police, and their mental health was shattered.Situations where police officers are accused of sexually assaulting women are not taken seriously.  As a journalist, Samantha wrote an exclusive series on indefinite imprisonment sentences for public protection (IPPs), where she profiled some prisoners in jail for ten years. She found that a generation of working-class black Asian and white working-class men and women were in prison for minor crimes.Gail claims that they are not in for the crime they were sentenced,  but rather invented allegations and they are subjected to mental abuse amounting to torture that has been inflicted on them. InIn 2012,  the government banned the sentence; people who were meant to be in prison 15 -17 years later have still not been released.You can find out more about Someone’s Daughter campaign at theviewmagazine.org  The View is the only organisation in the third sector that puts women with lived experience at the heart of all that we do, from our board, to our volunteers, The View is a living community that is creating a brighter future through art, story-telling and hope. Come and be part of our brave mission and vision for a fairer world. Support the showFor more unmissable content from The View sign up here