Rape outcry: UK erotic artist advocates self defense for women, slams police

Ruth Bircham, the erotic painter

Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

As a result of responses that followed the UK romantic painter, Ruth Bircham’s outburst on facebook recently, about a Nigerian man that she accused of raping her, the artist has started advocating for measures that women and girls could use to defend themselves, as she sees the law and police as useless tools to rely on, for justice against rapists.

Throwing more light on the issue, she says “When I gave the police the rapist phone number, they called him and asked him to come in for questioning. He dropped the phone on the police officers. Now, if a person is innocent he/she would not drop the phone on the police, they would plead that they are innocent and come into the police station to plead their own innocence. My police advocate said that. Instead of coming to the station he bolted to Birmingham. The police had to notify the airports, the trains and other transportation leaving London and used computer to track him down. For two weeks, they finally caught up with him at his sister’s home in London and arrested him.”

However, according to Bircham, after sometime the accused, Mr. Olufemi Ali, was left off the hook by the police. This made the victim suspect that something fishy must have happened somewhere along the line between the police and the accused man.

Based on the above, the erotic painter offers that, “Please learn some type of self defense and if you have children, let them too learn self defense also, because rape can happen to everyone. Everyone needs to learn self-defense. Protect and defend yourself because the law is useless... and so are the police.”

Responding to insinuations by some commentators who said the accused might have been tempted to commit the crime because of the erotic nature of the artist’s works, she wondered that “Is it wrong to be passionate about my artworks to create the truth of the environment existences? Now I think that, God wants me to protect the women and children from rape to paint the realities of rape on vulnerable victims and the effects it has on their family. “This is why it took me so long to report it to the police, because I was thinking of my darling daughter and grandson. I thought that if I kept silent that they would not have to see me crying and in pain.
“But the after effects of rape are very lethal. I kept vomiting everything that I had eaten and having runny tummy. Nothing would stay inside of me and then the thoughts of suicide entered into my mind as I struggled with the thoughts of reporting to the police. 

"Various voices from afar chiming together said that, ‘it is already done now, just take a blood test to check if you have AIDS, because African countries are riddled with AIDS and other tropical diseases that can kill you.’

One other thing that worries her mind as she says is, “The numbness of hoping that you have not caught AIDS, syphilis, Chlamydia, fungus and other std is also very disturbing. The numbness felt as you are given a course of AIDS meds to take for a whole month coupled with side effects that damages your kidneys and liver, causes nausea and vomiting.”
 She further said she is also weighed down by the incident as she posits that, “Being interviewed by strange people that do not believe you that you are just doing your job is heart wrecking. The loneliness you feel inside and the many questions reeling through my mind; my friend raped me, why? Why did he do that to me? What a life sentence to give to someone that you have laughed, chatted, and had snapped pictures with! 
“Five years, of not really knowing that your friend had a hidden agenda to rape you. And this is the most painful part. Not knowing what your friend is thinking while you are having coffee in a café, walking and having conversation with, laughing and joking about things with; to finally been raped by him. This is the most dangerous friend ever.” 

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