Rape survivor secretly recorded her abuser’s confession – despite audio + written confessions, jury verdict not unanimous

A woman who released audio of her rapist’s confession said she wanted to show how “manipulative” abusers can be.

Ellie Wilson, 25, secretly captured Daniel McFarlane admitting to his crimes by setting her phone to record in her handbag.

McFarlane was found guilty of two rape charges and sentenced to five years in prison in July last year.

Ms Wilson said that despite audio and written confessions being used in court, the verdict was not unanimous.

The attacks took place between December 2017 and February 2018 when McFarlane was a medical student at the University of Glasgow.

Since the conviction Ms Wilson, who waived her anonymity, has campaigned on behalf of victims.

Earlier this week Ms Wilson, who was a politics student and champion athlete at the university at the time, released audio on Twitter of a conversation with McFarlane covertly captured the year after the attacks.

In the recording she asks him: “Do you not get how awful it makes me feel when you say ‘I haven’t raped you’ when you have?”

McFarlane replies: “Ellie, we have already established that I have. The people that I need to believe me, believe me. I will tell them the truth one day, but not today.”

When asked how he feels about what he has done, he says: “I feel good knowing I am not in prison.”

Ellie was a university athletics champion
Image caption,

Ellie was a university athletics champion
line

The tweet has been viewed by more than 200,000 people.

Ms Wilson told BBC Scotland’s The Nine she had released the clip because many people wondered what evidence she had to secure a rape conviction.

She said the reaction had been “overwhelmingly positive” although a small minority had been very unkind.

And even with the recording of the confession being posted online some people were still saying ‘he didn’t do it’, Ms Wilson said.

In addition to the audio confession, Ms Wilson had text messages that pointed to McFarlane’s guilt yet she said she was still worried that it would not be enough to secure a conviction.

“The verdict was not unanimous,” she said.

“You can literally have a written confession, an audio confession and not everyone on the jury is going to believe you. I think that says a lot about society.”

Ms Wilson has previously said the experience she had in court was appalling.

She said she was subjected to personal attacks by the defence advocate and felt blamed for being assaulted.

[…]

Source: Rape survivor secretly recorded her abuser’s confession – BBC News

Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

 robin@edgarbv.com  https://www.edgarbv.com