Standing up in parliament last week, Charlotte Nichols MP waived her right to anonymity as a complainant of sexual offences.

“I care profoundly about rape victims facing intolerable delays for their day in court,” she said, in a debate about jury trials.

“I waited 1,088 days to go to court,” she added.

Nichols speaks to Helen Pidd about the painful experience of waiting for the case to go to trial and what it was like to give evidence.

“It’s like having a bruise punched,” she tells Helen. “All the worst things that you think about yourself, they’re going for.”

The defendant was acquitted on all of the charges against him. He declined to comment when approached by the Guardian.

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