An activist and whistleblower has mounted a poster campaign on Manchester Crown Court, Manchester Magistrates’ Court and Wigan Courthouse, accusing HM Courts and Tribunals Service and Greater Manchester Police of covering up rape.
The protest forms part of an ongoing legal dispute, now under appeal, in which the claimant alleges a sexual violence cover-up. The case has raised questions after the University of Salford declined to confirm or deny whether non-disclosure agreements were signed during a specified period or whether a student’s rape disclosure was reported. The university said it would not comment on matters involving victim anonymity, including in response to disclosure requests limited to the court.
The claimant said recent developments had deepened their concerns about how the proceedings were being handled.
“A disclosure application completely disappeared. An application to add Greater Manchester Police as an interested party was put behind a new hearing that prioritised the university’s later strike-out application,” they said.
They alleged the process had favoured the university and police while limiting scrutiny of the issues they raised.
“The picture of a cover-up is clear,” they said. “There were gaps in the data on multiple occasions. Data was released only after requests to send it to a solicitor and later a rooftop protest on campus. A missing sexual misconduct allegation against a lecturer, which vanished mid-process and also in data. An internal complaint was mishandled without a transparent inquiry, sky high report and support cases indicating this is much more widespread, and now the justice system seems determined to look the other way when uncomfortable truths come to light in court”. “Their ongoing behaviour in multiple areas adds to the appearance of a cover-up in which they are now more than complicit in.”
The claimant who has bipolar disorder also alleged a wider pattern in the way Greater Manchester Police had responded to their mental health episodes. “Ever since I have been trying to expose this alleged cover-up, there has been a pattern of senior figures in Greater Manchester Police retrospectively attempting to reclassify mental health incidents, which frontline officers responded to supportively, as crimes,” they said.
“It is a pattern of political persecution. But however much they try, I know her name and they cannot unrape her. It will all come out in the end.” “The university and the juatice chain through the police have a lot of entangled vested interests, and an officer I’ve found through subject access requests is involved in police partnerships compromising their impartiality”.
The protest comes amid wider concern over how the criminal justice system handles allegations of sexual violence. Campaigners and victims’ groups have long argued that too few rape reports reach charge or trial and that delays and case attrition can discourage survivors from coming forward.
Official figures show rape remains one of the least likely crimes to result in a prosecution, though the exact rate varies depending on whether the measure is reported offences, charges or convictions.
The claims, which centre on alleged failures across policing, higher education and court-related processes, raise questions about how allegations of sexual violence are handled within institutions responsible for investigating and adjudicating serious crime.
The allegations also raise broader questions about the relationship between police forces, universities and the wider criminal justice system, including whether long-standing partnerships could create a perceived conflict of interest when serious complaints are made against institutions involved in training or collaborating with officers. Concerns have previously been raised in academic and policy circles about how such relationships are managed and whether they risk limiting independent scrutiny of misconduct allegations. However, any suggestion of a cover-up involving public bodies responsible for investigating and adjudicating serious crime would carry significant implications for confidence in the justice system.
