No suspects are charged after Met Police probe into claims of sexual abuse and ‘rape culture’ in Britain’s top schools after more than 50,000 posted allegations of attacks online
No suspects have been charged over allegations of sexual abuse at schools that were shared on Everyone’s Invited, it has emerged.
More than 50,000 stories of rape, sexual assault and harassment were posted on the #MeToo inspired website, which was founded by former private school pupil Soma Sara in 2021.
The site allowed users to submit claims anonymously, with many of the accounts naming schools.
Independent schools including Eton, St Paul’s, Latymer Upper, Dulwich College and Westminster School were all named alongside a large number of state schools.
A team from the Met investigated six anonymous cases of alleged abuse from Everyone’s Invited against several unnamed schools.
More than 50,000 stories of rape, sexual assault and harassment were posted on the #MeToo inspired site – founded by former private school pupil Soma Sara
However, the Met could not identify anyone who had been charged with an offence that mentioned Everyone’s Invited, according to a Freedom of Information Request by the Evening Standard.
The revelations on Everyone’s Invited led to an Ofsted inquiry which concluded sexual harassment has become ‘normalised’ among school-age children.
It found 79 per cent of girls said sex assault happened ‘sometimes’ or ‘a lot’ among people of their age at secondary school.
Peter Csemiczky, partner at Hickman & Rose solicitors, said: ‘The lack of criminal charges related to allegations made on the Everyone’s Invited website illustrates the gap between hope and reality when it comes to prosecuting sexual crime.
‘While an allegation of this type may be straightforward, collecting the evidence that supports its accuracy to the criminal standard can be complicated.
‘Assessing evidence from electronic devices, medical, school or social services records takes time, resources and properly trained officers: neither of which the police have sufficient numbers of.’
Earlier this year Channel 4 aired a new drama, Consent, which told the story of ‘Archie’ and ‘Natalie’, who begin a friendship in sixth form before they have sex at a party when Natalie is drunk.
The site allowed users to submit claims anonymously, with many of the accounts naming schools
Emma Dennis-Edwards, who wrote the show, said she was ‘shocked but not entirely surprised about the culture of toxic masculinity and misogyny explored within the drama’.
Stories revealed on Everyone’s Invited include a girl who was allegedly attacked in a tent at a party, and other shocking accounts of revenge porn, harassment and rape.
While many praised the initiative, one expert warned that some boys were being branded sexual predators for ‘clumsy teenage fumbles’.
Julie Lynn-Evans, a psychotherapist with more than three decades’ experience, said that the movement was ‘a tremendous force for good but it is often a double-edged sword’.
Lynn-Evans told The Sunday Times: ‘I am watching boys’ lives being destroyed by an excessive cultural shift…. in the wake of MeToo and Everyone’s Invited. This is not fair, it is not justice and it is potentially dangerous.’
The expert said that while her clients during lockdown were mainly girls with eating disorders, since September they have ‘exclusively boys’ who have been punished for behaviour she described as little more than clumsy ‘teenage fumbling’.
All of the schools named in this article said they took claims extremely seriously and condemned actions described on Everyone’s Invited.
MailOnline has contacted the Met for comment.
A team from the Met investigated six anonymous cases of alleged abuse from Everyone’s Invited against several schools
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