When the defence raised sexsomnia, Jade Blue's rape trial was stopped just 13 days before it was due to begin. Years later, following a successful Victims' Right to Review and legal action against the CPS, new guidance has been introduced to help prosecutors more robustly scrutinise sexsomnia claims and expert evidence. In this personal reflection, she explores why the update matters and what it could mean for future cases.

A recent investigation has exposed online spaces where men share advice on drugging, assaulting and recording women - at a scale that’s hard to ignore. It’s easy to see this as extreme, but it reflects patterns many survivors already recognise. What’s being uncovered isn’t separate from the system - it’s part of it.

Some weeks, the news doesn’t just inform us - it presses on us. Stories of sexual violence, abuse of power, institutional failure, and delayed accountability accumulate rather than pass. They arrive one after another, asking to be absorbed, processed, and responded to. This week felt like one of those moments where the pattern was impossible to ignore. Not because it was new, but because it was so recognisable.

Powerful men named. Survivors are still waiting. Systems speak carefully. Accountability deferred.

[Image Source: Not Your Polite Feminist]

I haven’t slept properly since the Government mentioned abolishing jury trials for some offences. This is not because juries are perfect – they’re not- but because they’re the only form of oversight within the justice system.  When I first started speaking out about the judges’ lack of accountability a couple of years ago, I did so because of something my family lived through and something that opened my eyes to a problem I never knew existed. Most of the public don’t know about this either.

A survivor’s open letter urging government not to use court delays to justify removing the right to a jury

By Vicki

As debate grows around limiting jury trials, Vicki offers a vital perspective from lived experience. Her open letter sets out clearly why her case must not be used to justify removing the right to be tried by a jury.

The recent debate on restricting jury trials has focused on so-called “lower level” offences to allegedly relieve the waiting times for the more serious crimes. But that’s not where the real crisis sits. The greatest inconsistency - the greatest injustice - occurs in rape and sexual violence cases, where juries are asked to evaluate crimes, that they fundamentally do not understand.

On 1 October, BBC Panorama aired a devastating investigation into the Metropolitan Police. For seven months, an undercover reporter worked inside Charing Cross police station in central London, capturing on camera what many survivors, campaigners, and community advocates have long suspected: misogyny, racism, and abuse of power are not relics of the past - they remain deeply embedded in parts of Britain’s largest police force.

In the labyrinthine UK justice system, some legal defences are so unusual that they seem almost surreal. “Sexsomnia” -  a rare sleep disorder that allegedly causes people to engage in sexual acts while unconscious - is one of them.

Once confined to obscure medical journals, sexsomnia has entered both criminal and family courts with alarming frequency.