If the police said they expected a test result by a certain
If the police said they expected a test result by a certain date, Merlyn would phone to ask what had happened.She was extremely distressed by her injuries, she was terrified of seeing her attacker again, she wanted to escape. But she also wanted to regain the control which was wrenched so viciously away by her attacker. It is clear that immersion in the practical details of the investigation and trial and then the compensation helped her recovery, which explains in part, perhaps, the book's function as a handbook for the survivors of violent crime.She also wanted to highlight flaws in the system she now knows so well. Merlyn is critical of the criminal injuries compensation system, for example. She was told to fill in forms on her own, yet knows that acting alone she would have won only a fraction of the pounds 76,101 awarded to her after Helena Kennedy represented her, gratis, at the board hearing (where legal aid is not available).
Money is an important issue, she says, because there are so many things a victim might need almost immediately: a holiday, just to get away, especially while an attacker is still at large; a mobile phone for security, ditto a car; cosmetic surgery not available on the NHS; legal representation.In hospital, Merlyn received wonderful emergency medical care, but was left lying naked on a trolley for hours, was examined by a male doctor and was ordered to stop blocking hospital lines as she tried to contact friends and relatives in the aftermath. In court, she was only a witness, and was not allowed to discuss the case with the prosecuting barrister. She was not even told until the last minute that she could give evidence hidden from the defendant, which greatly distressed her.Merlyn is eager to help the cause of victims' rights. But while she is irrevocably defined by her own experiences, she is determined not to make the assault a career. "I want to make some good come out of the bad, but there are other things I want to do with my life"`It Could Have Been You' is published by Virago on 6 February, price pounds 9.99.. Webcams have been described as "windows on to the world". You can watch the sun rise in New York and set in Moscow; people making their way to work in Hong Kong, or coming home again in Berlin; a busy restaurant in India; turtles swimming in a tropical tank.
Thanks to the hundreds of people who have wired their camcorders up to the Internet, all these pictures can be seen on a computer near you. The first cam to appear on the Net came from Cambridge in 1992. The Trojan Room Coffee Pot Cam came into being when the computer scientists who worked at the university lab got fed up with walking down flights of stairs to find the coffee pot empty. They set up a camcorder and wrote a programme that relayed the image to their screens upstairs.
The project was so successful they decided to put it on the Web. Thousands of people started visiting the site to watch the coffee slowly percolating into the pot. Since then, cams have been pointed at almost everything imaginable. The virtual traveller can take a look at panoramic views of country scenes and sweeping city skylines. Peeping Toms and wannabe Big Brothers can have a nose around someone else's sitting-room, while Spy Cams capture the everyday dramas of street life.The competition to come up with new subjects to focus on is fierce The stranger, the better. There is a Nostril Cam, a Toilet Cam, a Freezer Cam, a Laundromat Cam and a Feet Cam Pets are also a favourite.