I raped was ra at uni.. now I am helping other victims

THIS MORING STAR WANTS END TO 'VICTIM BLAMING'

- HANNAH BRITT

THIS Morning’s Ashley James has bravely opened up about being raped when she was 21.

The political and social affairs correspondent waived her right to anonymity to fight for better help for victims and change attitudes to them.

Ashley says: “While at university, I was raped. It’s something I've never spoken about, and yet I've thought about it every day since - increasingly so since having children.

“It’s one of the very worst moments of my life. It was hugely traumatic. I'm not telling the story to shock, but as a mirror to show how common these experiences are, and also how broken the support system is.”

Ashley - who has two children, Ada, two, and Alfie, five, with her City worker partner Tommy Andrews - didn’t go the police.

The former Made In Chelsea star says it wasn’t “because I thought the police wouldn't believe me, but because the man wasn't a stranger in a dark alley”.

She adds: “He was a friend. Because of that the only person I blamed was myself, for years. Even now I find it hard to think of him as a rapist. But I was literally unconscious.”