Three Oxford University students who say they were sexually assaulted are preparing to write about their harrowing ordeals for the first time, inspired by a fellow undergraduate who penned a defiant open letter to her attacker.

Ione Wells, who was violently assaulted while walking from her local tube station in Camden, north London, wrote to her 17-year-old attacker saying she refuses to become a victim or change her behaviour.

In “A Letter to my Assaulter” for her university’s newspaper, Cherwell, she described the horror of the attack but said it had not shaken her faith in community to come together “like an army”.

“I’m sure you remember the 7/7 bombings. I’m also sure you’ll remember how the terrorists did not win, because the whole community of London got back on the tube the next day. You’ve carried out your attack, but now I’m getting back on my tube,” Wells wrote.



"You did not just attack me that night. I am a daughter, I am a friend, I am..." #notguilty http://t.co/kZjJaS4Qqi pic.twitter.com/LOmjUquEFH — Ione Wells (@ionewells) April 26, 2015

Wells, 20, described the moment her attacker pounced on her in a darkened street, clasping his hand around her mouth and smashed her head against the pavement as she screamed for help.

She wrote: “I don’t know anything about you. But I do know this: you did not just attack me that night. I am a daughter. I am a friend. I am a girlfriend. I am a pupil. I am a cousin. I am a niece. I am a neighbour. I am the employee who served everyone down the road coffee in the café under the railway.

“All the people who form those relations to me make up my community and you assaulted every single one of them.”

In a message of defiance, she added: “My community will not feel we are unsafe walking back home after dark. We will get on the last tube home, and we will walk up our streets alone, because we will not ingrain or submit to the idea that we are putting ourselves in danger in doing so. We will continue to come together, like an army, when any member of our community is threatened, and this is a fight you will not win.”

Her letter prompted an outpouring of support on Twitter and Facebook, where it was shared thousands of times by people using the hashtag #notguilty to encourage others to speak out about their experience.

Speaking on BBC radio she said that she chose to waive her right to anonymity “to connect with other victims” to show they are not alone.

“I personally felt that by showing my face and revealing my identity I could encourage others to feel empowered and speak out.



“There is a very dangerous culture of victim blaming whereby people can feel that because they walked a certain place or a certain time, or wore a certain item of clothing that they are to blame.



“That idea is beyond wrong, as victims we are always in the right.”



She said she hoped the phrase “the victim is never guilty” would become a “household term” and added that for her attacker “seeing a face and seeing a strong story is more effective than any sentence”.

Some wrote that the letter provides “solace and acceptance” to other victims of violent assault, while former Catholic Herald editor Cristina Odone described it as an “extraordinary lesson in courage from a 20-year-old Oxford undergrad”.

The student has since tweeted her gratitude at the support she has received for the online campaign which was launched in conjunction with the Cherwell newspaper.

She said: “Wow – what a wonderful community. YOU have all proved my points about community in your support ... Remember my case is only one of many, many others. We have much more fighting to do!”

Now Cherwell is preparing to publish letters or articles from other students who have been inspired to open up about their own ordeals.

On Thursday, Rebecca Watson, the co-editor of the paper’s lifestyle section, told the Guardian that at least three women – all believed to be Oxford students – had contacted the paper offering to write about their experience: “It’s wonderful. It’s just amazing. It’s been such a quick reaction. The thing that Ione and I were worried about most is that the campaign would fall flat, because even though it’s very important, it’s about Oxford students, so it’s very unpredictable how it’s going to turn out.

“We’re both very strong believers in writing being cathartic so after a horrible event it’s something that feels very natural to do to make sense of it.”

She said it was incredible that Wells’s letter had empowered victims of sexual assault, but added: “It’s just so awful that the reaction is instinctively to feel guilty. I hate that we’ve got to that point where the thing that is normalised is saying, ‘Be careful how you dress. Be careful where you go.’ Rather than saying, ‘Why is this happening?’.

“There’s such emphasis in the media about these horrible events that happen and it would be very likely for Ione’s story to be put forward and indulged in as a sob story. Obviously the event is horrible but the idea is we are all actually good people and this event happens to few people so let’s focus on the sense of community rather than us guarding ourselves.”

The Metropolitan police said in a statement that a 17-year-old male appeared in custody at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court on 13 April where he pleaded guilty to sexual assault. He has been bailed to appear at the same court on 6 May for a sentencing hearing.



Wells’s open letter is not the first time a university student has publicly shared their experiences of sexual assault. Last year, Cambridge University student Francesca Ebel said she felt compelled to break her silence after reading that 88% of cases go unreported. She regretted not acting on the incident at the time, aged 17, for fear that she would not be taken seriously.

In the article for the university’s Tab newspaper, headlined, “It’s time for us to speak out”, Ebel said there were too many “faceless victims” and that it was time to change society’s attitude towards sexual assault.

She wrote: “So yes. This article is attention seeking: I am seeking attention for what happened. I want more people to engage with the problem, to identify the issues and to realise that, even in this progressive environment, we have a serious problem.”