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SAM: 'Such an array of, like,

'emotions attached to that period of my life.

'You know, my sense of self-worth,

'and just very broken on so many...

'..so many levels.

'Just very untrusting of the world around me after that.

'I feel...

'..I feel sad for me.

'You know? For that young me.

'I missed out on...

'..a period of life there that should have been...

'..more joyful. You know, more free spirit.'

Yeah, when you're raped, it changes how you see the world around you.

FEMALE OFFICER: So, you've made an allegation

of a serious sexual assault.

Tell me, in as much detail that you can remember,

what happened.

The... The, erm...

What happened in the room? Yeah, tell me what happened.

Erm...

'I'm from New Zealand.'

After university, I was, like, gonna go and do some travelling now,

I'm gonna get cultured, I'm gonna go have fun.

SHE LAUGHS

'Went to a lot of gigs,

'I tried foods I hadn't tried before,

'and just enjoying meeting people.' SHE LAUGHS

You know, all those different accents together,

it's a fun time.

'London, it's quite an expensive place to live.'

You know, I have some savings there,

but that was chewed through quite quickly.

So I made a profile on a job app.

People can just go there, upload a CV,

have a little bit of a profile about themselves,

and I was just looking for something like waitressing.

Within that 24 hours, definitely,

a message popped up on my phone.

It was somebody offering me work in an escort agency.

You know, I hadn't done escorting work before.

It said, "Paying for sex was prostitution and illegal,

"but paying for somebody's time and company -

"so escorting - wasn't."

You know, "You'll make 500, you know, a night", type of thing.

I just kinda thought, "Oh, that... that sounds easy."

INTERVIEWER: And it wouldn't involve any sex?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I was under the impression

that it was illegal to pay for sex.

This is the street.

Erm... Is the light on?

Yeah, the very top. See? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that room there.

See where those white curtains are pulled? Yeah.

That's his place? The... He's in there.

I don't even wanna know what's going on in that...

room right now.

Wh-What is about to happen?

He'll sit you down and...

Well, he'll ask you things like, "Do you like sex?

"What do you like about sex? Are you a party girl?"

Which, you know, AKA, "Will you take drugs?"

You know, it was just really quick.

Shahin gave me some excuse straightaway

as to why it was in this flat.

And then he requested my passport,

and said he needed to, like, check my right to work.

There was a lot of information coming at me all at one time,

including the request to inspect my body.

And he was, like, quite persistent

that I needed to do that in order to get the job.

Once I went into the room, like, he closed the door straightaway.

Erm, and locked that door.

Everything was just really white.

You know, the curtains were white, the walls were white,

the duvet was white, the cabinets were white.

I was just in a state of, like, panic.

I remember, like, being fixated on some sort of filming equipment.

Before getting on the bed, I remember him,

you know, like, walking around me.

Like look-looking at my body.

I remember him, like, positioning me,

like, on the end of the bed at one point...

you know, and, like... pulling my legs up.

He didn't look at my face whilst he was raping me.

I remember, like, turning my head...

Just-Just remember my body just...

SHE GROANS

SHE SCOFFS

As...

Did you feel able to protest?

No.

You know, using my voice...

was... scary

because I didn't know

how he was going to react.

After it happened, he told me to clean up and get ready.

And then I would be sent by his driver to this client.

SoulMates was the website that Shahin showed me initially.

It had a number of different profiles -

the name, the age.

"I will offer you a great girlfriend experience", things like that.

Much later, I discovered the AdultWorks website.

AdultWorks is a mainstream,

very popular platform

that Shahin was using to...

advertise girls on.

And then I saw my profile for the first time, and I was, like...

"Ew!"

It was just a real shock to see my face attached to a profile

that I didn't consent to, I didn't create this.

And, down the right-hand side,

it had a list of various services.

Basically, selling me for every service available.

Like, watersports, golden shower, lots of different things.

Yeah, including unprotected sex.

It made sense as to why

the clientele had these expectations

of what was going to happen.

That man just knew how to break you down

to a point where you just feel nothing.

'Just a very strong, overwhelming, dominant...

'..person.'

And even when they were, like, moments where I was...

not inside his premises,

I still felt that I had to comply with, like, his requests.

But it wasn't just what he did,

it was all those experiences with clients as well...

..erm, which break you.

Did that sort of overall behaviour have an impact on why you stayed?

I-I-I stayed, ultimately, as long as I did

because I was scared. I was scared of him.

I was scared that there were consequences to me.

I mean, have I broken the law? Am I going to be...

Am I gonna get a conviction now? Am I gonna be deported?

If I have a disagreement with him, am I safe?

This-This man knew where I lived.

He can find me.

SAM, QUIETLY: 'So, this is the front door.

'There's the little bathroom.

'This is the spare... room.'

I got my phone out and just started filming what I could.

I remember, like, building myself up with that because it felt like...

..a scary thing.

'And this is the office.

'It has, like, nothing...

'..kind of in it, really.

'Weird.'

Who's gonna believe...

me if I tell them this happened to me?

Everything that I filmed in that moment

wasn't substantial evidence.

But it proved I was there.

CAMERA CLICKS

Gabrielle was a girl that I met there.

She'd already been there for days before me.

CAMERA CLICKS Shahin had a real issue

with us speaking to each other

because he didn't want us sharing details

about what he had done and was doing.

We managed to have a cigarette out the window together,

and we had this really short moment.

And I remember, quite quickly in our conversation...

.."Did he rape you?"

Yeah, I remember her telling me, "Yeah, yeah, he's raped me,

"and he's raped me multiple times."

Situations were getting, like, more risky and dangerous.

FOOTSTEPS

It was just abuse after abuse.

I just cracked.

I cracked one day, and I was, "I can't...

"I can't, I just..." I was so tired.

He told me that two men had booked me,

get ready and go.

One man is something, two... no. No, thanks.

I remember telling him, "No, I don't wanna do that."

And the way he looked at me was, like, not normal.

His eyes were so still.

Like, "How dare I challenge him?!"

I remember being, like, really scared in that moment

cos it was the first time I had actually challenged him.

I could hear somebody coming up the stairs.

And I remember telling him, you know,

"If you don't unlock this door, I'll scream."

He unlocked the door and I ran out.

I remember, like, running down the stairs,

out the front door of the house,

turning left and running up the street.

And... went straight to bang on the driver's window.

The driver said to me,

"Shahin's just told me not to let you into the car."

But the driver did let me into the car.

I remember telling him, like, "He's raping girls."

I remember the driver...

..telling me he knew.

And he drove me all the way home.

I think he was feeling very uneasy himself.

I remember asking him and saying to him,

you know, "The next time you...

"you speak to him, record him."

The, "So?" Hearing that, "So?"...

..as a response...

I really isolated myself... after that.

I was just existing in a state of fear.

I was hypervigilant, I was...

anxious, I was... I was depressed.

I felt dirty, I felt used, I felt...

I don't know, like, damaged goods or something.

I don't know.

I definitely, at that moment, was, like,

"I want to go to the police, but I am scared to go to the police.

"What are these people gonna think of me?"

"That I've made a decision to be an escort."

And then, "What, you've been raped now?

Like...?

FEMALE OFFICER: So, you've made an allegation

of a serious sexual assault,

which you state happened in April of this year, 2018.

Tell me, in as much detail that you can remember,

what happened.

The... The, erm... What happened in the room?

Tell me what happened.

Erm...

I did... didn't question why I had to...

had to take, erm, my clothes off for...

a job interview.

But I... I didn't know cos it was my first time,

I didn't know what the-the...

the protocol was cos it was my first time

at an escort agency at the time. Mm-hm. Erm...

In that first interview, I was...

I carried my shame into that room, and...

'it was, like, difficult to just let your guard down

'and be so vulnerable.'

I wanted to, like, be strong for myself.

VOICE BREAKING: Then...

But I did, I took my clothes off and I just, like...

..did everything he told me to do.

I had a nice officer there,

she did her best to make it as comfortable as it could be.

And I thought, "OK... they'll do something now."

Almost immediately, after I was out of SoulMates,

I was, like, "I need to move. This person knows where I live."

I moved to a new place,

and then from that place, I moved into the safe house.

I was able to sort of re-establish a healthier routine,

there was a lot of expertise in-house.

Yeah, I'm very-very grateful for...

..the support I received from that safe house,

it was just immense.

The police issued me a letter,

which explained that my allegations of rape,

erm, were being dropped.

Erm...

Which was a bit of a...

Yeah... LAUGHS WRYLY

That-That letter really, erm...

Yeah, that was pretty wounding because, erm...

..just was... wasn't finished, erm, the case wasn't finished.

'The No Further Action letter from the police

'states that there isn't enough evidence

'to take my case forward...'

..the fact I reported the incident five months after it happened,

so there's no forensic evidence.

'I didn't hand my phone over,

'which they state is a significant obstacle to prosecution.

'But I handed over copies of all my communications with Shahin.'

I handed over multiple videos,

I handed over photographs that I had taken.

'I handed over everything related to the case.'

And this man continues to run his operation and exploit women,

and the system's OK with that.

Something had to happen. It had to stop.

'The police had just closed my case,

'so I decided to do my own investigation.

'I encountered the SAAFE website

'through typing Shahin's name into Google.

'SAAFE Stands for Support And Advice For Escorts.'

And within their website,

I found multiple chains relating to Shahin,

from 2011 up.

There were girls on there calling out "Shahin rape",

saying this man did rape girls, this is how he operates.

He'll invite you to an interview.

'He'll ask to inspect your body, he needs to check you for diseases.

'Yeah, absolutely wild, and I could see thousands of views.'

And I was just thinking to myself, "Why didn't I read this earlier?"

Girl talks about rape. Yeah.

They state from 2011.

So, saying, "The manager will attempt

"to have sex with you at the first interview."

I reached out to Gabrielle

after I had exited,

and I was like, "Hey, can we meet straightaway?"

She was like, "Yes. We need to talk."

'And I got to know Gabrielle quite well.'

And that's one review. There is so many.

We met three days after I start.

We were both smokers, so we had to smoke in the kitchen

because that was the only place where we were allowed to smoke.

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what you said? Something you said to her?

I asked her if she had been raped, too. Yeah.

And that was the case. What did she say?

And she said yes.

And when she described it, she said exactly the same things I say.

Same process, same kind of interview.

'I've been abused in the past.

'And I felt in the same way, I felt that you just have to be...'

..used and abused.

And I felt that bad that...

I was about to give up on everything.

How many times in total did he rape you?

Four times.

'The second time was really painful.

'He had this cucumber with the plastic around the cucumber.

'And he told me to spread my legs, remove my knickers.

'Then he penetrate me very, very hard.'

It was so painful, I just wanted to stop.

'After that, he told me,

' "Wash yourself, you have to go to work."

'So I go to the bathroom, and I was bleeding.'

My vagina was bleeding.

I was in pain. I couldn't work after that.

And he was a bit angry

because I was like, "I can't see anyone."

But at the same time, in my head, I was like,

"If I go somewhere else, I'm going to be safe."

You go somewhere else, you'll be...? Safer. Even if I see someone else.

Not in his apartment? No.

I also met a girl named Hannah who was raped by Shahin.

This was three years before me in 2015.

She reported her rape to the police,

and, yeah, her case was dropped.

HANNAH: If I think back, I'm like, "Shit, I got raped."

Yeah. A lot of times.

Are you OK? I'm just... OK, yeah.

Yeah. It's just emotional. Yeah, it is.

So, the last night, we got into an argument.

And then he threatened to shoot me.

And he reached under his desk,

and in my head, I went, "Oh, shit. I will die."

So I peg it out the door.

I run downstairs, and I decide to call the police.

I think, in my head, I hoped he had a gun.

Yeah, so, then, like, he could be stopped.

Police turn up,

and they were useless, the police were useless.

And I think it hurts, like... that nothing was done,

and, like, there was so many opportunities to stop Shahin.

And if they did a proper investigation

into my complaints, we would not be sitting here.

'I was checking my profile on AdultWorks quite frequently.

'Shahin didn't take it down.

'He said he would, did not take it down.

'My sense of worth was being crushed

'by seeing my own profile,

'which I have not consented to, develop.'

And here I am, sitting in a safe house,

wondering who the hell Shahin is sending out as me.

'On the AdultWorks platform,

'you can go and click on a profile and book a girl.'

So, I decided to book myself off the internet.

I had some assistance from my friend.

I think my friend was like, "This is an absolutely crazy idea."

So, I went to a hotel...

..had my friend make the booking.

SHAHIN: 'Hello?' Hello?

412.

Is she definitely the girl in the pictures?

And is she from New Zealand? 'Yeah.'

I just had sort of one goal in that moment,

which was to get her number.

It wasn't to tell her

I had also worked at the agency

because I didn't know the extent of her own situation with Shahin.

It just felt a bit dangerous.

This girl showed up, and...

she was nothing like me.

She didn't have a New Zealand accent,

she didn't have light hair.

She was a Romanian girl.

I remember her being sort of shy.

I think she was expecting, you know,

that there was a man on the other side of the door.

So, I told her, you know,

"I'm not looking for sex, I'm not looking for anything like that.

"I just, like, you know, wanna have a chat."

I explained to her that I came from a sex-work background.

The moment I said that, like, she was very open.

And then I had minutes,

I had minutes before her phone went off.

And she says, "I have to go."

You know, she was telling me that the agency wasn't good,

and just before she left, I said, "I'm gonna give you my number

"if you wanna contact me, and I'll help you find better work."

And she said, "Thank you," and left.

She contacted me,

saying sorry she had to leave, you know,

her boss needed her to go, and I was like, "OK, cool."

I did eventually tell her I used to work for SoulMates,

talked a bit about, like, going to the police.

And it was really funny, cos she told me, she said,

"Oh, Shahin spoke about this girl who went to the police.

"The police didn't do anything, they didn't do anything." You know?

And here I am thinking, "He's talking about me."

And he's telling the victims going through his door

that nothing will happen if you go to the police

because that's what happened!

'I just went on a real deep dive

'to get as much information as I plausibly could about Shahin.'

I have gone through Shahin's Facebook statuses

all pretty closely.

"They call me Draculine of the West End"

is what he's got under his name.

And then his cover photo...

..is a shot taken outside the property

pointing to the window where I was raped.

Why would you pick that photo to put as your cover photo?

October 25th, 2014.

"I don't need the right from anybody. I am taking it."

September 14th, 2013.

"House party with ten bombshells."

And you know what's going on there.

INTERVIEWER: What is going on? Yeah, it's girls...

It's girls in his flat. Victims.

Shahin is not shy to put himself out on the internet.

He has videos on YouTube.

He was an actor and a singer

and a songwriter, all of which weren't true.

There's a video on YouTube...

SINGING IN BENGALI

What is he trying to do by making a video like this?

What's his aim?

I think he's trying to sell the idea

that he has fame, that he's highly important.

He wants to be famous, I think.

What's it like for you when you see his face again in these videos?

For a while, I didn't really wanna, like...

look at his face or, like, think about his face.

Because the image of him is so strong my head, you know,

and I can't not unsee his face now.

'I found another document online.

'And to me, it is a public catalogue of...'

..rape victims of Shahin's. That's what it is to me.

This document is a decision from a High Court judge

who refused Shahin's grant for permanent residency in the UK

in light of these alleged sexual assaults.

The document points out 11 non-convictions since 2008.

He threatens to shoot,

stab and kill women,

as well as several alleged rapes.

Again, sharing similar accounts.

The judge ruled that he was a pimp, that he had a short temper

and that he was a serious threat to women.

What a disgrace.

The authorities let hundreds, if not thousands, of women down.

What is it, 365 days in a year?

He could have multiple victims,

in one day, raped.

'Traumatisation after traumatisation.

'And yet, the police closed my case,

'saying that there wasn't enough evidence.'

I don't know, I was just kind of like,

"What is wrong with the world?"

KATE ELLIS: Sam wrote to us in 2019.

She wrote us this very interesting letter

which gripped me straightaway.

'And she was speaking on behalf of herself and two other victims.

'So they came into our office.'

And when I first met Sam, I was impressed straightaway.

I mean, I've been impressed by her letter.

I had a sense of her as someone who was very determined,

for whom it was never just about her.

It was always her and the other two victims,

and then any other number of unnamed victims out there,

she always had that in her mind.

'We asked her to tell us a bit about her story

'and what this man had done,

'and she tried, but she was really, really finding it hard,

'at times, to get the words out.

I just remember it being extremely powerful

and extremely upsetting to hear her talking about it and to...

In a way, the things that she wasn't able to say,

you know, said more than what she was able to say.

'So, from there, it really became about

'challenging the police over this

'and trying to press for the investigation to be reopened.'

The first time I was in the safe house,

I stayed a little bit over a year.

And then I was in private accommodation with friends.

And then I became an illegal immigrant, I guess.

'My visa ran out, and...

'I didn't have the right to work.

'So I couldn't support myself independently.'

I was living below the poverty line.

I'm moving back to the safe house.

Yeah, for...

..an unknown period of time.

INTERVIEWER: And there's no rent to pay?

No. No, no, no.

Do you find there's a lot of rules in the safe house?

Yeah, I don't know. I just...

I have to get my head around it sometimes. Erm...

And that's probably because I just don't trust...

I don't trust people all the time.

You had quite a tough first few years of your life.

I mean, yeah.

I was born in Russia,

and I was put in this orphanage

because my mother couldn't look after me,

so I was taken away.

And, erm...

..it made things complicated.

Yeah, it made things really complicated, but, yeah...

SHE LAUGHS WRYLY It is what it is.

Everyone's, you know, been dished something.

In life? Yeah, yeah.

I knew that there is a process in place to challenge decisions.

And anyone can do it. It's an internal complaints process.

'You can seek a review by a more senior officer.'

And actually, by the time we got to the meeting

where they were supposed to explain why they dropped the case,

they had done a bit of a U-turn and decided they should reopen it.

'To learn from Kate that...

'that the police were going to be reopening my case...'

I mean, obviously, it was good news.

But also, I was thinking, "What's next? Who knows!"

You know? Like, I don't know what's next at this point.

When Kate informed me

that the police had lost my VRI, video-recorded interview...

SHE EXHALES DEEPLY

'So, there was a string of emails that were sent to my lawyer.'

It's a conversation between multiple officers on this case

looking for solutions for that lost evidence.

I'm just gonna read a little section out of here.

"In 2018, matters were presented to the CPS as rape.

"The three ABE masters are now missing.

"There are significant gaps in the case.

"Sad for the victims, but not necessarily our job to recover.

"So, in my view, as before,

"keep away from the 2018 for now and focus on the current.

"We have some cracking new..." In capital letters.

"..witnesses, and if all goes to plan,

"there will be one or two or three girls

"working with him when he is arrested.

"This will be recent evidence of his enterprise."

It just makes you feel shit, doesn't it?

It's just trying to keep us on in case,

and that's what they say here, too.

Just try and keep us in case they need us.

MALE OFFICER: Obviously, you know that we're here to talk about

an allegation you made sort of mid-2018.

So, what was the expectation of you when you went to these clients?

I was expressing...

I was expressing to him in his hotel room that I wasn't OK.

TEARFULLY: But he, erm...

Yeah.

When you say you weren't OK, just describe that a bit, please.

SHE SNIFFLES Erm...

I couldn't...

Erm... It was just...

..difficult.

Difficult to...

..say certain things sometimes to these people

because they already had their own expectations,

because Shahin had already said to them that that was OK anyways

to do whatever the fuck you want with us.

We're outside the police station now.

I've returned to do another VI.

INTERVIEWER: VI? Yeah, video interview.

This is my third time.

Just a few weeks back,

I was here for almost six hours completing an interview,

and the disk didn't work when they went to check it.

It was broken. Erm...

So, yeah, this is why I'm here today.

Last time, I walked out and all these boxes in my head,

erm, yeah, the lids are sort of just left ajar,

and it sort of left me...

..exposed. I felt really exposed.

And it's taking my memory back

into a time where I was quite helpless.

I don't like that feeling.

Right, so the time by my phone is 10:56.

It's Monday 14th December, 2020.

I only propose to cover what we're missing.

So, I heard from Max yesterday, Officer Max,

and Shahin has now been charged

with rape in connection with the allegations.

Really? Yeah. So he's facing five charges...

Wow. ..in connection with your account.

Two charges of rape, two charges of sexual assault by penetration...

Yeah. ..and one charge of controlling prostitution for gain.

That's so cool. That's really cool. That feels like a...

Yeah, a big weight off that push.

Cool! I mean, I think well done, you.

Honestly, because this wouldn't have happened without you.

Yeah, that's crazy. OK, after all that.

Do you wanna know how many charges he's facing in total?

Yeah. 40.

40? SHE EXHALES

So, from that day where you went to the police,

and then you get told there's nothing here...

Yeah. ..to 40 charges.

You never know what's gonna happen, but I'm tentatively optimistic

that it's gonna be hard for him to make all that go away.

That's really good news. I feel like it's...

That's the best news, actually. That's really cool.

ABBEY: Yo! Hi!

THEY CHUCKLE Good news.

Yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, you look like you had good news.

Yeah, really good news. The, erm....

CPS has approved the rape charge, so... No!

Yeah! It's sick. It's sick. Oh, my God!

It's sick. It's good. Oh, that's such good news.

It's good, eh? Really pleased about this.

Do you believe in anything like, erm...

a Loch Ness Monster or, like, a yeti?

Not, really. I don't think so.

I'd like to see it.

'Abbey's my partner.

'She comes from a very different background from myself.'

You know, does Santa Claus count?

CHUCKLING: What? You know?

And we're both pretty outdoorsy people, so...

it's nice to go away and do something

both, like, together, and...

Yeah, definitely. SAM CHUCKLES

Where are you looking? There. That, see?

Oh, wow. A whole host of them.

LAUGHING: What?

It's been quite special

that she's been able to kind of handle all this.

'It's a personal thing, and it's not always an easy thing.'

It's nice to have that support, and, you know...

the amount of times I've gone, "Agh!" You know, just...

..just get so upset by something, really, you know?

'Yeah, she helps bring me back down,

'and she'll remind me why I'm still here, and...

'the importance of this case.'

And she'll remind me the impact my voice has

so that I get the justice I deserve

as well as the justice for many others

who haven't been able to voice themselves,

necessarily, so easily.

'Because, sometimes, you do get so overwhelmed by things.'

'We are outside Tottenham Police Station.

'So that I can view

'what do they say, an ID parade.'

Was it easy to recognise him?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the feeling when it first comes up.

Yeah.

Just swallow...

SHE LAUGHS

The police had me sign some document.

And I didn't like the way it was written

that "I had sex" with this man.

So I corrected it.

Er...

that I was raped by this man.

You've just completely

disregarded

why I'm here in the first place.

SHE LAUGHS

Not hugely psyched to be here today.

Why not?

Er...

I feel like I'm having to...

sort of declare my innocence...

..over communications I've had with another victim.

Because...

of this idea of collusion.

I think the police have been conscious

that one line of attack that the defence might use

is because Sam was such a... rock, actually,

for the other two victims who reported him in 2018,

that that almost might somehow undermine her credibility.

I think the suggestion was that in any case

where you've got a number of victims telling a similar story,

on one level, clearly that supports the prosecution case,

that suggests they are all telling the truth.

But on another level,

it can allow the defence to try and suggest

that there's been collusion,

or that the women have...

discussed their accounts with each other.

Hi.

You all right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fun times.

Are you feeling nervous? Yeah, a little bit.

I don't really feel like being here

for this particular interview. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I dunno, I just feel...

Oh, yeah.

I don't like having to prove my own innocence,

I don't like that feeling.

No, I know.

I do think that the police and CPS at the moment

see you as a credible victim.

It's really hard for sexual offence cases

to make it to trial, they so often don't.

That you are one of the rare ones

where they obviously think they can prove the case.

Yeah.

So, I would remember that, at the same time, hold onto that.

Over it.

I hope that they've made you feel like that.

I'm really sorry.

Just over it.

Yeah.

SHE SCOFFS

Hopefully, this is the last time I have to come back here.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so I met her back in 2018...

erm...

when I ordered myself off the internet.

Have you ever colluded with her?

No.

Around making any allegations?

No. Not...

I mean, I've shared a hatred with her.

If that's collusion.

OK.

But have you...

For instance, have you told her

what to say to anybody or anything of that nature?

I don't think so, I've just told her

where she can get, you know, support.

What was the purpose of the...

contact,

the first time you met her to, let's say, today?

Yeah.

The first... The first...

The first time was to see who was behind my profile.

And, erm...

the second time was to see if she was OK.

Yeah.

OK, so the purpose of your continued...

I just wanted to check she was OK and that she had help.

I wanted to check she was OK, that she had help,

and if she did have the appropriate help,

perhaps she would be more... more inclined

to share deeper experiences,

that may have actually in turn been helpful.

You know, because she was in a lot of pain.

Yeah.

I don't feel like I did a wrong thing by contacting her.

I shouldn't be made to feel like I've done a wrong thing.

I shouldn't be made to feel like

caring is the wrong thing to do here.

How long have you known BLEEP?

Since April 2018.

OK, thank you.

Are you in regular contact?

Er... OK, I probably...

We go through waves.

How do you know her, like, as a person?

What's your... I only know her through...

..the shared...

SoulMates, I know her through SoulMates.

'It made me scared to speak to...

'..particularly any of the other girls.

'Dunno, the fear that came out of like...

'am I going to damage this case

'by speaking to somebody?'

Am I not allowed to?

Like, I just was questioning who I could and couldn't

even speak to, including my own lawyer.

It put me in a bit of a position where I felt like my support network

was a little bit fragile.

I was a bit fragile.

SIREN

What did this letter or email from the police say?

They said,

"It appears that the existence of the film-maker

"has been deliberately hidden for a good period of time,

"and I have now been tasking

"with reviewing all the material he has.

"I will need to take a further statement

"about that also."

So the police are saying that you deliberately

withheld the fact that you were making this film with me?

Pfft. Right?

Yeah.

But also we look back at 2019,

when you and I first started filming.

The police investigation seemed to be going nowhere.

And then they closed your case. Yeah.

Just coming at me

and asking me to hand over...

..er...

..something that has felt quite rewarding

in all of this chaos, actually.

But at the end of the day, they didn't...

They needed to listen to me better.

They needed to believe... everything out of my mouth,

everything that was out of anybody else's mouth.

And they think...

..you know...

..there was, like, a right...

Invasion of my privacy, of my own rights...

..to do something for me.

You know. And...

I'm allowed to... share my story.

Because...

they're not sharing my story.

They're sharing theirs.

So, I've just come out of the court.

There's no resolution yet.

But I did find out that the main trial against Shahin

has been delayed for maybe as much as a year.

And that's gonna be tough news for Sam.

At the end of the day, the judge deferred a decision.

Yeah.

It transpired in court that there was a hearing

the day before... and that...

..about vacating the case,

or putting the main case back.

Really?

And the court has agreed to delay it.

Why?

What? Sorry, what?

They're going to delay the trial now?

That's... That... They are going to delay it again?

Why? Well, it's...

It's hard for me to know because this is the first thing I heard

when I got into the court.

And this is only me picking between the words that the judge said, so...

I've got no other knowledge, but the judge did say this,

so I think it's pretty much... reliable.

The trial was now postponed.

Postponed a year.

That's a long time to wait.

And some of the other victims dropped off

from supporting the prosecution.

Everything was a bit harder.

Hi. Hey. Hey. How are you?

Drop it like it's hot. OK.

The police are not getting access to any of our footage.

Really?

Because of the judge's ruling.

Really? Cool. I was... I was just expecting...

I was expecting some bad news, Richard,

I honestly was expecting some...

That's really awesome. Yeah.

I'm just gonna bring you here.

It's the first time you got a new friend?

Yeah. This is Charlie.

He's a happy pup. He's ten weeks today.

I've wanted a dog for a really long time.

And I think, like, it's, trial is not too far away,

I just think, it's really good for my mental health.

Like, I've had, like, sort of waves of anxiety at times.

Erm...

And he's certainly helping with that.

So... yeah, I think he's...

..bringing lots of love.

Bringing lots of love, aren't we?

Sam, I think, will be a central witness.

I mean, she's been told, specifically,

by the officer in the case, that her testimony

is considered particularly powerful.

The interviews she's given.

And the defence are gonna come after her.

'Mind the gap between the train and the platform.'

It always comes down to the credibility of the victim.

You know, mostly these cases will be one person's word against another.

I don't really know how I'm feeling other than nervous.

So...

The defence will be playing, I think,

on myths and stereotypes about how a victim will behave.

How's my regrowth looking?

Is it ten out of ten?

And the fact that there was a delay in reporting.

Even though it's not a long gap in the grand scheme of things.

I fear that there are probably people

who struggle to take the same approach to consent,

when you're talking about someone who turned up for a job

at something that was advertising itself

as an escort agency.

That they wanted or expected to have sex.

But, of course, that's not how consent works.

You don't sign away your right to say no

when you turn up for a sex-work job,

even if that is what Sam had been expecting.

I think Sam is gonna find it difficult

even to be questioned about the offence itself.

I mean, the way that the defence will present in cross-examination

is that they will put their case to her.

So, even when she's saying, "No, it wasn't like that,

"it didn't happen like that,"

they will put to her that she is a liar.

Been, what, four years, eight months since events took place.

I think that's right.

Yeah. So it's quite a long time

leading up to this particular moment.

It sort of feels kinda surreal.

How do you feel about the possibility

of seeing him face-to-face again?

I won't see him face-to-face cos I'll have a screen.

He can't see me, I can't see him.

I wouldn't want to look at him.

I wouldn't want to acknowledge him.

It's kind of a weird and uncomfortable thought

to think if he is there, you know...

Yeah, I dunno, just...

Yeah. Yeah, that's...

That's... That's where I'm at with this right now.

Yeah, I gave it my best shot.

I gave it my best shot.

I found parts of that really, really challenging and...

..being under pressure and trying to respond was just...

Yeah, it felt quite intense.

I feel like if I could go back,

there's things I would have said now...

erm...

Yeah, I didn't like some of that at all.

But... I got through it.

Yeah, I got through it, so...

Really?

Really!

Yay!

Oh, yes, yes!

Cool.

Yeah.

All five, all five!

All five counts, babe.

It's nice to get to the finish line and there be a positive outcome.

Being believed makes me feel validated.

It has helped me let go

of some of the deeper feelings.

Yeah, I like to think I've done OK.

Despite everything, I've done OK. I've come out the other end

and I'm on my feet moving forward.

And I think the main thing is that he's now off the streets.

He's no longer a hazard.

He is no longer a threat.

So, I'm safe.

And everyone else is safe from him, too.

I think that's...

..the biggest thing.

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