London police are being sued by a woman whose sexual assault complaint was deemed unfounded by the force.
Ava Williams believes the way investigators with the London Police Service (LPS) handled her 2010 sexual assault case constitutes sex discrimination and infringed on her constitutional rights.
A lawsuit filed last Friday claims police officers relied on sexual stereotypes and myths related to rape and gender to evaluate and ultimately dismiss her case. It states that the police interview was clearly slanted towards disbelieving Williams.
“I am bringing the claim to achieve justice for all sexual assault victims who have been discriminated by the LPS, and to ensure that the LPS and other police agencies enact meaningful policies to combat systemic discrimination,” said Williams, in a news released issued on Monday.
Williams, who has agreed to have a publication ban on her name lifted, was the central figure in The Globe and Mail’s recent investigative report on unfounded sex assaults. She was an 18-year-old university student, attending a keg party at London home when she said she was attacked by a man after becoming separated from her friends. She admits to consensual kissing with the man, but goes onto state that he forced himself upon her against her will.
The statement of claim cites the officer repeatedly suggested Williams consented to the sex, questioning the amount of alcohol she had had to drink and that she originally consented to the kissing.
Williams said the experience has caused her psychological and emotional injury, a loss of self-worth, embarrassment and humiliation, and a loss of trust in law enforcement officers.
She is seeking unspecified damages and also wants a court-appointed review panel composed of independent experts in sexual assault to review all LPS sexual assault cases closed in that year as “unfounded."
The allegations made by Williams in the statement of claim have not been proven in court and a statement of defence has yet to be filed.
Williams' lawyers, Vancouver-based Joseph Arvay Q.C., Luciana Brasil, and David Wu, believe the lawsuit is the first case of its kind designed to prove that victims of such discriminatory conduct by the police are entitled to be awarded damages under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Her lawyers emphasize that “a claim for damages is one way not only to compensate Williams for the harm she suffered, but to also vindicate her rights and to provide some measure of assurance that those violations will not occur in the future.”
