CALLOUS REAL LIFE
Answering the questions as clearly as possible, that’s when I realised that the defence didn’t care.
They didn’t worry about facts or evidence.
To them, it was more about telling a story.
The leading defence lawyer, Lorenzo Alonzi, claimed that I had tried to manipulate him.
He asked me if I knew what a narcissistic personality disorder was and he made out that I was hiding something. Lorenzo tried to say that Daniel had gone to uni and ‘fell in love with the wrong person’.
Not only that, but he claimed that it was an ‘injustice’ that I’d got a degree and Daniel hadn’t. I was made out to be some sort of villain.
Over the course of the five-day trial, Lorenzo used the word ‘rape’ twice – but he used the word ‘love’ over 11 times.
It felt like I was being abused all over again.
Thankfully, Daniel McFarlane, 25, was found guilty of two counts of rape.
However, the tirade against me continued, even at his sentencing a month later.
‘[Daniel] had a perfect life in front of him and he now has a High Court conviction and is on the sex offenders register for life,’ Lorenzo said.
He was adamant that it was my fault.
Only, I couldn’t let his words dampen my spirit.
It was important for me to show up and claw back some sense of empowerment. Thankfully, despite everything, Daniel was sentenced to five years in jail for raping me.
To me, that felt like a fair amount of time.
However, I didn’t come away feeling relieved.
Especially after how Lorenzo had questioned me during the trial.
I was sick of men making me feel like I was nothing.
Putting in a complaint, needing to pay £3,000 for the court transcript as evidence, it took over a year to hear anything back.
Only in April this year, the Faculty of Advocates Complaints Committee ruled that Lorenzo’s behaviour amounted to ‘unsatisfactory professional conduct’ on five of the 10 issues raised.
Which means that Lorenzo has been ordered to pay a £2,000 fine, alongside a £1,000 compensation f
