Latest news with #EmilyHunt
BBC News
04-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Rape advisor Emily Hunt's abuser jailed after 10-year fight for justice
The government's former rape adviser has said she is "incredibly relieved" her abuser has been imprisoned after a decade of campaigning for justice. Christopher Killick, 45, was sentenced to three years imprisonment at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday after being convicted of harassing Emily had previously pleaded guilty to voyeurism after filming Ms Hunt naked in a hotel room in 2015 while she was Hunt said "it only took 3,706 days of me fighting" for Killick to "finally get a jail sentence"."It's remarkable, I'm really pleased that somebody listened," she continued."For the time that he is in prison, I will know that I am safe. And for that, I am incredibly grateful." Case dropped Killick was initially arrested on suspicion of rape in London in 2015 after Ms Hunt woke up naked in a hotel room with no recollection of how she had got there. She said she'd been drugged and raped but police dropped the case due to a lack of evidence. Killick has always denied Hunt waived her right to anonymity in order to pursue a case against Killick. Her persistence led to a change in the law, allowing police to charge him with voyeurism after they discovered he had taken a 62-second video of her in the hotel room. Hunt was awarded an OBE for her campaign work. Killick pleaded guilty in 2020 and was given a 30-month community order and fined £2,000, and was also given a restraining order banning him from contacting Ms Hunt directly or the sentence, Killick – who stood as an Independent parliamentary candidate in a by-election in Hartlepool in 2021 – continued to July 2021 and February 2023, he breached the restraining order by repeatedly tweeting about Ms Hunt. In March 2023, he received a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. The restraining order was also July 2024, he breached the order again, by tweeting about Ms April 2025, while waiting to be sentenced for that offence, he breached the order was finally imprisoned this week, swearing at the judge shortly before he was sentenced. Judge Michael Maher, speaking to Killick, said that "each breach, looked at individually and collectively, represents an unwavering persistence on your part"."The blunt point is this, Mr Killick, you just won't give up. But Ms Hunt won't give in. My God, she has demonstrated great courage in relation to you. Your obsession speaks for itself."Emily Hunt, who now lives in the US, told the BBC that Killick's behaviour was the consequence of a "failure of the criminal justice system, where there are no consequences to breaching court orders". "He was arrested then released, more than than once."Ms Hunt served for two years as an independent adviser to a rape review conducted by the Ministry of Justice but resigned in 2023 citing a lack of will to improve the experience of rape victims by the last Conservative government. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Unauthorised school absence widening ‘disadvantage gap' in England
Unauthorised school absence is a leading cause of the widening performance gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in England, according to analysis from a respected thinktank. The research by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found that all of the increase in the 'disadvantage gap' among 16-year-olds since 2019 can be explained by students on free school meals (FSM) missing more time off school than other pupils, putting them several months behind in terms of their results. 'It is unauthorised absence that is of key concern, particularly at secondary school. Compared with authorised absence, it contributes more to the GCSE gap, and its contribution has grown faster since 2019,' the report stated. Poor attendance has also widened the attainment gap at all ages. The EPI calculated that if disadvantaged pupils had the same attendance record as other pupils, the attainment gap at age 11 would be almost 10% smaller, and the gap at age 16 would be 20% lower. Emily Hunt, the EPI's associate director of social mobility, said: 'For the first time, we have shown that high and increasing levels of absence among disadvantaged pupils are the primary reason why the disadvantage gap has grown since 2019 and that the government won't tackle the gap unless it gets to grips with the complex root causes of absence.' School leaders endorsed the EPI's analysis. Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: 'Too often, the burden of ensuring children attend school falls entirely on teachers and leaders, who are then held accountable for absences beyond their control. 'Without a broader system of support, it is extremely difficult for schools to drive meaningful change in attendance rates.' Di'Iasio said that 'for some families, school seems to have become – at least in part – optional', and said fines for taking unauthorised termtime holidays were failing to halt that trend. 'Far from solving the problem, fines often deepen tensions between schools and parents. Schools, simply enforcing the rules, are left looking like the villains,' Di'Iasio told the ASCL's annual conference on Saturday. The Department for Education's data showed one in 50 pupils at state schools in England missed at least half of their lessons in 2022-23, with pupils on free school meals twice as likely to be absent than others. The DfE will this week publish its updated school attendance figures for 2023-24. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told the ASCL conference that 'green shoots are appearing, especially in our secondary schools' on attendance. Phillipson added: 'If we keep this up, we'll achieve one of the biggest annual increases in recent memory.' The EPI found that children whose special educational needs and disabilities (Send) were not identified early in their time at school were likely to fall behind. Hunt said the results were 'confirmation that the youngest children with Send have been some of the worst impacted, post-pandemic.' The research also found that girls 'are increasingly making less progress during secondary school than boys since the pandemic. We therefore reiterate our call for more research to understand the declining attainment of girls and any links with the widening of the gender mental health gap in recent years.' Attainment gaps continued to grow among all age groups, according to the EPI. By age seven, nearly 60% of the gap at age 11 had already developed. The thinktank is calling on the government to tackle the disadvantage gap by increasing the early years pupil premium – paid to education providers for disadvantaged children aged from nine months – to match the pupil premium in later years. A DfE spokesperson said: 'This government inherited a system with a number of baked-in inequalities, and this report is further evidence that the absence epidemic is having a detrimental impact on children's learning and their future success. Getting more pupils attending school regularly is a top priority for the government.'
