Durham police chief encourages sexual assault survivors to report after major arrest - WRAL

Durham police are encouraging survivors of sexual assault to report their experiences after a major arrest.

Police charged Kenneth McNeil with more than 15 sex crimes, many against children.

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Police Chief Patrice Andrews drew attention to that arrest in her presentation last week to the Durham City Council, saying there is always a chance for justice.

In the case of McNeil, police say those crimes took place over the span of 26 years.

“What I want to highlight there is just showing that no matter what happened, please report,” Andrews said. “There's always a likelihood, there's always a chance that we can bring the offender to justice."

WRAL News spoke with Audrey Mrad, the coordinator of the sexual assault nurse examiner program at UNC Health.

As program coordinator, she encourages survivors to report and helps them through the process, pointing to the fact that many perpetrators do not act only once.

“More people reporting and more people collecting evidence, we're able to have a higher chance of linking those cases together," Mrad said.

Mrad says it’s important to seek health care after an assault to access medications to prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

Sexual assault nurse examiners can also connect survivors to mental health and community resources.

“For adults, you have the option of coming and having evidence collected without reporting at first, or meaning that we can collect the evidence to preserve it, since evidence decays over time, and then you can decide later whether you want to report and have that evidence run, or you can report from the get go,” Mrad explained.

Mrad explained how the options work.

“The important thing for people to know about that option is that you can't come have evidence collected and then have the evidence run and then decide whether to report or not. You have to report to law enforcement and involve the criminal justice system from the get go in order to receive the results of the kit,” she said.

Mrad says sometimes survivors feel shame when they shouldn’t, and reporting can help.

“Reporting shifts the blame from the survivor to the perpetrator of the sexual violence,” Mrad said.

While adults have the option of whether to report, when it comes to anyone younger than the age of 18, all adults in North Carolina are mandated reporters. It means they are required to report to law enforcement and CPS if they suspect a child has been assaulted.

Mrad says they take every case seriously.

“I think one of the biggest myths around sexual assault is that people expect, if someone's assaulted, to have a lot of different injuries, and most of the time, and this is for both children and adults,” she said. “Most of the time, we do not see injuries. So a normal exam is consistent with a history of sexual assault.”

Monika Johnson Hostler is the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She explained it’s a statewide organization.

“We are representative of roughly 68 rape crisis centers that serve all 100 counties,” Johnson Hostler said. “They provide direct services to survivors.

“We also work in collaboration with other first responders … nurse examiners, prosecutors, law enforcement, student groups [and] campuses [that] also provide direct sexual assault services, everyone who could interface to either prevent or end sexual violence.”

Johnson Hostler said there are barriers for survivors to report assault.

“The top three would be the shame and the guilt, the fear of not being believed, and also the fact that they've developed a rapport and may have fear of the person who's caused them to harm,” she said.

Johnson Hostler said their work is validating survivors’ experiences and encouraging them to do what feels right to them.

“Our local programs actually will go to the law enforcement agency with the survivor if they want to have some accompaniment from a victim advocate,” she said. “The local program is going to have a relationship with either the chief, sheriff, or the chief investigator who investigates sex crime, so that we call those warm handoffs so the survivor will know, ‘Yes, we do know this person. Yes, we can walk you through this process.’”

In the case of McNeil, he remains in the Durham County Detention Center under no bond. His next court appearance is March 3.