London police are being sued by a woman who says her “unfounded” sexual assault and the way the police force handled her complaint was unconstitutional.

Ava Williams, a university student who has decided to have her name go public with her concerns, isn’t looking for a big civil settlement. Her real goal is to have the courts declare the way the London cops investigated sexual assault allegations, then declared them “unfounded” between 2010 and 2017, as unconstitutional.

The statement of claim, filed Friday, cites the right of every individual to equal protection and equal benefit under the law without discrimination.

No one was charged when Williams said she was attacked and sexually assaulted at a house party. Her case was deemed “unfounded” after officers interviewed her.

In her statement of claim, Williams is asking for a yearly review of “unfounded” investigations by a court-appointed panel that would include “front-line service providers and women’s legal advocates.”

The idea is known as the “Philadelphia Model,” based on a protocol established in the American city. Those findings would be reported to the court.

Williams has named the police service and Staff Sgt. Paul Gambriel, the detective who interviewed her after an attack in 2010.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, says Williams has “public interest to seek the relief sought on behalf of all women who had their sexual assault claims dismissed as unfounded by the defendants.”

Williams was 18 when, after a keg party, she became separated from her friends, recalls consensual kissing with a man, then was raped by him. Several people were nearby with cellphone cameras and pointed them at her during the attack.

She was found naked and crying, covered in dirt near a pine tree by the house.

The statement of claim says Gambriel “relied on sexual stereotypes and stereotypical myths about sexual assault and sexual assault complainants that have been explicitly rejected by the courts and legislation,” including issues surrounding consent.

“Despite the clear and unequivocal evidence of the plaintiff that she told the assailant ‘no’ and to stop as he continued to sexually assault her, and the fact that the plaintiff was too intoxicated to be capable of consent, Set. Gambriel repeatedly and insistently reframed the situation as one that was consensual,” the statement of claim reads.

The incident is being reinvestigated.

London police began a review of its handling of sex assaults in February after a report cited their high rate of “unfounded” sex assault claims — 690 dismissed out of 2,278 complaints over five years.

jsims@postmedia.com

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