The Whole Truth

@Adex201918

9.19

Replying to @JosephAndrews2018

This makes me so angry – no-one shd suffer this, men or women. I hope the uni authorities are being supportive & actually *believing* them. There’s also loads of support services out there – Samaritans, Nightline, the OU Students Union

#sexualabuseaffectseveryone #MeToo #HeToo

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Michaela Mitchell

@1010101MM

9.22

Replying to @JosephAndrews2018 @Adex201918

12 THOUSAND men suffered sexual abuse in the UK last year, and a significant number of the perpetrators were women. It’s not common, but it *does happen*

End #sexualabusebythoseinpower #MeToo AND #HeToo

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Lorna Bartholomew

@9_9_Starfish

9.22

Replying to @JosephAndrews2018

When was this incident? I’m involved in the @OxASV campaign and I’ve asked around but no one I know has heard anything about it. Are the police involved?

#OxfordAgainstSexualViolence #MeToo #HeToo

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JosephAndrews2018

@JosephAndrews2018

9.28

Replying to @9_9_Starfish

A few days ago. The police are def on it though whether they’re getting anywhere is another matter. Let’s just say ‘she’ is *very* prominent

Lorna Bartholomew

@9_9_Starfish

9.29

Replying to @JosephAndrews2018

And how is he? Is he getting help?

JosephAndrews2018

@JosephAndrews2018

9.29

Replying to @9_9_Starfish

Yeah, doing OK at the moment

Oxford Against Sexual Violence

@OxASV

9.29

Hearing reports of a serious sexual assault on a male student by a female academic. If you still need proof that #sexualviolenceaffectseveryone this is it. Let’s stand strong with the men who’ve been on the receiving end of this #abuse and get the #HeToo hashtag trending

#VictHIM

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Back at his desk, Andrew Baxter rolls up his sleeves. In every sense. It’s not as hot as it was over the weekend but the office has no air con and the creaky fan in the corner is just circulating hot air. He cracks open a cold Red Bull and picks up Marina Fisher’s phone.

* * *

Adam Fawley

9 July 2018

9.34

Bryan Gow is looking irritatingly fresh in a cream jacket and chinos, neither of which I’ve seen before. He has new glasses too, and – even more startling – a decent haircut. We’ve worked together for more than five years, but his personal life is still an enigma to me. I’ve always assumed he had far too many time-consuming geeky bloke hobbies to have room for a relationship, but this new look of his may suggest I’m wrong. Who knows, perhaps there really is a woman out there who put ‘Maths-obsessed trainspotting Civil-War re-enactor’ under WLTM.

‘Interesting,’ he says, looking up from the file. ‘This one’s hardly business as usual, is it?’

I make a face. ‘It’s a high-wire act over a bloody minefield. Morgan’s mother is Petra Newson.’

His eyes widen. ‘Ah. I see. Shit.’

I give a grim laugh. ‘Yup, all of the above.’

‘So you want me to review the interviews?’

I open up my laptop. ‘Fisher’s, particularly. Asante thinks something is off. Says her body language is all wrong. But there could be all sorts of assumptions at play here. See above under “minefield”.’

‘True, but DC Asante is a bright lad. Let’s have a look, shall we?’

* * *

‘I don’t know, you just look a bit – off, that’s all.’

They’re in the ladies’ loo on the first floor. Somer is leaning back against the basins and Everett’s by the window, watching her friend and trying to decide if she should be worried. Somer has seemed so much happier since she started seeing Giles Saumarez. Ev’s only met him once, but he seemed almost too good to be true, especially after that ill-advised fling Somer had with the undeniably attractive but calamitously unsuitable Gareth Quinn. Saumarez is in the job as well, so he understands the pressures, but not in the same force, which in Ev’s opinion is a far safer idea (not that she’s ever tried it). Giles is good-looking, considerate, supportive, funny. What’s not to like? The only wisp of a cloud on the horizon was the imminent arrival of his two teenage daughters, coming from Canada for a three-week holiday. Ev knows Somer’s been apprehensive about meeting them, and she was definitely much less enthusiastic than usual about going down to Southampton this weekend. Is that what this is all about?

‘If it’s the girls,’ she begins, ‘then it’s completely understandable –’

Somer shakes her head. ‘It’s not that.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘A job’s come up. In Hampshire. Giles thinks I should apply.’

Ev’s eyes widen. ‘What sort of job?’

‘In the Domestic Violence Unit. They can’t say so publicly but Giles knows they’d really like to appoint a woman and there aren’t many obvious candidates in-house. And if I got it, they’d fast-track me through my sergeant’s exams.’

‘Sounds like you’d be mad not to give it a go. What have you got to lose?’

Somer looks away. ‘I don’t know. It just seems like a huge upheaval. I’d have to move – find somewhere to live –’

Ev frowns. ‘But you’d be living with Giles, surely? Isn’t that the whole point?’