Ella Janneh has expressed her relief after being awarded £217,000 following a s*xual assault case that was not prosecuted and two appeals to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were dismissed.
In an interview with the Guardian, she stated, “I don’t think anybody chooses to make the most humiliating experience of their life something to be publicly known for. But this shame is not ours, and I want to make this easier for the next person to speak out.”
Despite reporting the alleged r*pe to the police the day after it happened, her case was not prosecuted. Her appeals to the CPS were dismissed, and she was initially denied criminal injuries compensation because the police deemed her “not a credible witness.”
“First and foremost, I wanted justice,” said Janneh, now 37. “I wanted to be able to share this story with the world.”
Janneh began seeing therapist Michael Lousada in 2011 to address trauma from childhood s*xual abuse, which had left her depressed and prone to panic attacks during s*xual activity with boyfriends.
She explained, “Because I really did not understand what was happening to me and it was really overwhelming, and I experienced a lot of shame and embarrassment about it, I felt like I needed to get help.”
After reading an article about Lousada, she decided to seek his help again. She paid £750 for a three-hour session, believing Lousada was an expert in trauma. She described her panic symptoms to him, but he did not explain what to expect from the session.
After 30 minutes of talking, she went to a room with a bed where the alleged r*pe occurred. Janneh claimed Lousada told her his penis was “like a laser beam” that could “burn up trauma” and “absorb the trauma.” The court heard that Lousada did not use a condom and instructed Janneh to regress into her childhood self. Janneh suffered a panic attack, leaving her unable to communicate and “incapable of providing valid and informed consent.”
Lousada admitted to the penetration but claimed he received “clear verbal consent” from Janneh, which the judge ruled was not the case. The judge determined Janneh had suffered a “full-blown dissociative panic attack” and entirely lacked the capacity to consent.
After leaving Lousada’s office, Janneh called a friend but could not discuss what had happened. Later, she reported Lousada to the Metropolitan Police, initiating a r*pe investigation. However, the CPS decided not to prosecute Lousada.
Reflecting on the incident, Janneh shared her feelings of humiliation and betrayal, emphasizing the importance of justice and support for survivors.
“I absolutely did not feel like justice was done,” she said. “I just couldn’t understand how this was allowed to continue, and I just couldn’t sit with the fact that this was allowed to continue. I had wanted to die. That’s how bad I felt, that’s how destroyed I was, I almost lost my mind. I’ve gone in a space that is supposed to be therapeutic and the whole thing was turned on its head.”
