Councillor on suffering sexual abuse as a teenager

Councillor on suffering sexual abuse as a teenager

14 April 2021

A LOCAL politician has revealed that she was the victim of prolonged physical and sexual abuse while a teenager.

Rowallane councillor Kathryn Owen went public with the horrific ordeal she experienced during last week’s meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down Council.

In a moving address during a debate on the need for the Assembly to draw up a new strategy on violence against women and girls, the DUP councillor’s voice choked with emotion as she bravely told her story.

Cllr Owen urged the local authority to recognise the concerns of women across the UK and Republic of Ireland after the recent disappearance and subsequent murder in England of Sarah Everard which had shone a spotlight on the safety of women and girls.

Tabling a motion — which was supported unanimously — Cllr Owen asked the local authority to promote the Women’s Aid petition calling for a Violence Against Woman and Girls strategy to be implemented and to form a taskforce to develop a publicity campaign promoting safety apps.

She also urged the local authority to engage with the PSNI, Women’s Aid and Great Britain and Ireland Soroptimists and asked the province’s other 10 councils to back the new strategy.

Cllr Owen also revealed a series of shocking statistics in relation to forced marriages, female genital mutilation, sexual offences and domestic abuse incidents.

The Rowallane politician revealed that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, eight women had been murdered.

She said no woman had not been touched by the murder of Sarah Everard while she was walking home.

At the start of her emotional address, Cllr Owen said she recognised that domestic abuse and sexual offences are not exclusively a female problem “but no one can deny that they are disproportionately affected”, commending the work of groups like the men’s advisory project.

She continued: “I speak on this topic from personal experience. At 18 years of age I fell foul to prolonged physical and sexual abuse. In the 1990s you didn’t go to the police, you just picked yourself up, dusted yourself off and went on.

“You were told that they wouldn’t believe you, take you seriously or that they had much more important things to be dealing with. You would feel as though somehow you brought it upon yourself. Maybe you deserved it. In my case, he was my boyfriend so who was going to believe me?’

Twenty five years on, Cllr Owen said she still instinctively feels the same shame she did back then, admitting that the council debate was the first time she felt strong enough to speak out about her ordeal, urging public representatives to do all they can to help others.

“Sadly in 2021, many female victims still feel like this and with only 39.2% of subjects getting charged, who can blame them? They put their necks on the line, swallow the shame and report it for, more often than not, it to be ignored. 

“Women and girls must feel empowered to come forward. Women have to carefully choose what clothes they wear in case they draw the wrong type of attention. Show too much skin and we are asking for trouble, not enough and you are dull and boring. Women have to keep to well-lit areas, tolerate inappropriate touching and are not able to go out on their own at night.”

Cllr Owen said that in 2021 many were still having to have conversations with their daughters, confirming that she was concerned that some predatory behaviour has now moved on line.

She declared: ”Social media, with its unrestricted access, has become the ultimate no holds barred way to anonymously subject women to abuse and intimidation.

“This online abuse is almost without exception of a violent sexual nature. It takes seconds to find contempt in sexism towards women on line. Then there is the pressure on young girls to send sexually explicit images of themselves to be shared around group chats.”

Cllr Owen revealed that 2,050 calls have been made to the government-funded helpline for revenge pornography, with 73% of the callers female.

She added: “Northern Ireland is our shared home; it must be a better and safer place for women and girls. While these are complex matters with no clear quick fix, we must try. It is for these reasons we need a violence against women and girls strategy.

“We need it now and cannot be stuck here in 25 years’ time with women still feeling the same shame as I do today. They must have the power to speak out. We need to protect the next generation.”