TW: This article contains mentions of rape.
Yesterday, Chris Noth was accused of rape by two women. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the alleged assaults are said to have happened in 2004 and 2015. In a statement, Noth strenuously denied the allegations, saying ‘the encounters were consensual’. Now, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have said that because neither of the women have filed official police reports with them, there is no investigation at this time.
According to The Hollywood Reporter one woman named as Zoe (a pseudonym), who is now aged 40, claims she was 22 when the actor allegedly raped her at an apartment in West Hollywood. Lily (also a pseudonym) is 31 and alleges she was raped in Noth’s apartment in New York when she was 25 and he was 60. The details of the allegations are harrowing and eerily similar. You can read them in full here.
It’s Noth’s statement in response that is causing major backlash though. Denying the allegations, he questioned the women’s timing and seemed to imply that they are lying in order to capitalise on his return to fame, following the premiere of And Just Like That.
‘The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,’ a statement from Noth to The Hollywood Reporter read. ‘These stories could've been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It's difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don't know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.’
For so many years I buried it.
Zoe acknowledges the timing in her allegation. ‘For so many years I buried it,’ she said. But ‘seeing that he was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me’ and so she decided it was time ‘to try and go public with who he is', she said.
It’s a very common response when it comes to historic rape allegations generally, the question of ‘But why is she coming forward now?’. It’s one many are sharing to defend Noth. But regardless of whether these allegations are proven to be true or not, we must talk about this reaction more generally.
Questioning the timing of a woman’s rape allegation is incredibly triggering for all accusers. So often, it seems to be used as a tool to invalidate women making historic accusations against powerful men, but it translates to all survivors no matter who the perpetrator.
For women who have suffered, not reporting can be a source of regret for decades. ‘I didn’t report my rapist to the police right away and I regret that so much now, I always wonder if I can or should do it all these years later,’ Emma*, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Grazia. ‘When it first happened, I thought reporting was pointless. I knew the conviction rate was extremely low so it didn’t seem worth it to put myself through the trauma of reporting, rehashing the memory over and over to try and convince people I wasn’t lying. I would’ve had to take time off work, spend money I didn’t have going to and from legal appointments for months on end. It all would’ve been so traumatising and I knew I couldn’t seek private therapy while the case was ongoing.
‘But now I feel so differently. I wish I’d had the strength. Even if the case fell through, just knowing his name would be on some kind of system and that he would’ve been made to question what he did, I think I’d feel better now. I always think about reporting him, but it’s been years of processing this trauma, I don’t even know if that’s still an option to report now.’
It is, for the record. While there are varying statutes of limitations for rape cases in the US (depending on the state, it ranges from no limitation to 20 years), that is not true for the UK. According to Lawtons Law, ‘there is no statute of limitations on sexual assault’ in the UK, meaning you can report whenever you are ready. But Emma is not alone in questioning herself given how common this reaction of ‘Why now?’ is when women report historical rape allegations in the public eye.
Why do some choose to believe women are lying instead of understanding that the trauma of rape takes years to process?
So often, it can take years to process sexual assault. But you know what UK statistics show is not common? False rape allegations. Home Office research shows that ‘only 4 per cent of cases of sexual violence reported to the UK police are found or suspected to be false’. In fact, men are 230 times more likely to be raped than to be falsely accused of rape in the UK.
Why then, do some choose to believe that women who make allegations against public figures are automatically lying for personal gain (often through the guise of questioning the ‘timing’) before any evidence has been reviewed, rather than acknowledging that there are many complicated reasons for accusers not contacting police earlier? If anything, we should be questioning why we live in a world where women seem to feel they can’t make allegations against powerful men until years after the fact.
What we know is that perpetuating this narrative causes harm to all victims, Emma included. ‘When I saw that reaction, it made me anxious,’ she says. ‘I’ve spent so much time trying to convince myself that people will believe me if I come forward, but knowing how quick people are to question victims makes me not want to say anything at all.’
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