The Oxford University student who wrote a defiant open letter to her sex attacker has said she feels “overwhelmed” by support after her assailant was jailed for a year.
Ione Wells said she was determined to help other victims of sexual assaults following the ordeal which left her suffering insomnia and panic attacks.
Speaking after her 17-year-old attacker was sentenced on Wednesday to 12 months in a youth detention centre, Wells told the Guardian she had been inundated with messages of support from strangers from across the world “who have helped highlight the issue which I felt so strongly about from the outset – that victims of such attacks should not feel guilty and should be able to speak out and seek the help they need”.
Wells, 20, this month waived her right to lifelong anonymity with an extraordinary open letter to her attacker, in which she refused to become a victim or feel afraid to walk the streets of London. The first-year student was sexually assaulted as she walked from Chalk Farm tube station to her home in Camden, north London, in the early hours of 11 April.
The letter, published by her university’s newspaper, Cherwell, inspired dozens more victims of sexual assaults to speak publicly about their ordeals under the campaign #notguilty.
Her attacker, who cannot be named because of his age, was given a 24-month detention and training order – half of which will be spent in custody – when he appeared at Highbury youth court in north London on Wednesday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to the sexual assault.
Speaking after the sentencing, Wells said: “The response to the #notguilty campaign has been overwhelming and if it has helped just one individual feel better and stronger about themselves as a result I should feel it’s been a success and the campaign is what I care about most now and wish to focus on.”
Wells was walking home after a night out with friends when she was brutally attacked. Her assailant, who had followed her from Chalk Farm, dragged her by the hair before forcing her to the ground and kicking her in the back and neck. He eventually ran off when neighbours heard her screams.
Police arrested the teenager less than an hour later when they say they found him following another woman nearby.
Wells, who was not in court for the sentencing, said in a victim impact statement that she had suffered insomnia, panic attacks and flashbacks since the sexual assault. “It makes me feel nauseous just looking at my own body,” she said in the statement.
It said: “I can’t close my eyes without hearing my attacker’s footsteps behind me. He knows the area where my neighbours and I live and I am anxious that he will come back to get me.
“I feel insecure about myself. I can’t look at my own body without thinking how my attacker hit me so hard that I bled. My body feels tainted and violated by a stranger who thought he had the right to violate my body. I panic about how long this will last.”
The court heard that the teenager, who is weeks away from his 18th birthday, was of previous good character and had aspirations to go to university once he finished his studies.
Vanessa James, his defence lawyer, said that at one point in interviews the boy’s eyes welled up when asked about the attack, but that otherwise he would only say he felt “bad, not good” about his actions.
She added: “He is unable to provide an explanation. It appears to be something he did not think about, that was not premeditated.”
Asking the judge to spare the teenager from detention, James said: “I ask the court not to deny [the boy] the chance of rehabilitation. This is his first time before the courts and he is willing to prove this will be his last time. While his family are upset they are still supportive.”
But district judge Gillian Allison said there was no alternative but to detain the boy because of the serious nature of the attack. If he had been 18 he would have been jailed for 32 months. She added: “This offence is so serious that only a period of detention can be justified. I reach that decision because of the severe and potentially life-changing impact this has had on the victim.”
The boy made no reaction as he was led away from his father by a court official. He was told he will spend 12 months in a youth detention centre and a further 12 months under supervision. He was also ordered to sign the sex offender register for five years.
Gerallt Evans, CPS London deputy chief crown prosecutor, said after the sentencing: “Ione has shown real courage throughout this case – this was a terrifying attack which no one should have to experience.
“I want to let victims know that we will do all we can to support them through the prosecution process. This includes the use of special measures such as giving evidence behind a screen and by giving victims the opportunity to tell the court about the impact of the crime through the use of victim personal statements.”
DS Sonja Elshaw, from Camden CID, said: “This attack had such an impact on the victim – Ione Wells – that she recently wrote an open letter to the defendant.
“I applaud her bravery in doing so and emphasising that she and her local community will not stand for this type of deplorable behaviour. I am pleased the youth was quickly identified by police and at least admitted his crimes in court.”
In a Guardian interview published on Saturday, Wells said she was willing to meet her attacker if it stopped him from reoffending. Addressing the letter to “my assaulter” – Wells has not been told her attacker’s name due to his age – she wrote: “I don’t know anything about you. But I do know this: you did not just attack me that night. I am a daughter. I am a friend. I am a girlfriend. I am a pupil. I am a cousin. I am a niece. I am a neighbour. I am the employee who served everyone down the road coffee in the cafe under the railway.
“All the people who form those relations to me make up my community and you assaulted every single one of them.”
