THEN
The headmaster, Mr Brook, had told Mum that the school would be looking into the incident. But whatever they were doing, it wasn’t enough or fast enough for her parents’ liking. So, following Ian’s advice, they contacted the police. Mum and Dad both took her to the police station in Barnstaple, where she had to speak to two officers – PC Andrea Quinlan and PC Max Lynch.
PC Quinlan was this small, round-faced woman with light-brown eyes that made Iris think of weak tea. She was nice, right from the start. Her colleague, though? He was the total opposite. He was tall and thin; he had a long face and a long nose to match and these judgey blue eyes that bored into Iris. He gave her the ick.
The first time they went to the police station, Iris had to give a statement. Her face flamed as she went through it all. It was bad enough going over it all –again– in front of her parents, but in front of total strangers? It was so humiliating. PC Lynch just looked at her the whole time like it was all her fault. Luckily, PC Quinlan was the one typing up her words and asking her questions.
When PC Quinlan had read the statement back to Iris and she’d signed it, the officer asked her if she would mind leaving her phone with them for a couple of days. She did mind, but it wasn’t like she needed it. So she just shrugged and passed over her mobile. It wasn’t like she had much choice.
Then PC Quinlan turned to Iris’s mum and dad. ‘You need to react quickly before the video spreads to more platforms,’ she said. ‘My advice would be to contact the Revenge Porn Helpline. They’ll help you take it down.’
Her dad looked from one police officer to the other, then from Iris to her mum. ‘Don’t the police do that?’ he asked. Iris could hear the disbelief in Dad’s voice.
‘I’m afraid not,’ PC Quinlan said.
‘For one thing, we don’t have the resources for that sort of thing,’ PC Lynch added bluntly, turning his nose up like he was being asked to pick up dog poo on his rounds.
‘Well, what can you do?’ Mum sounded as desperate as Iris felt.
PC Quinlan’s sigh said it all. ‘We’ll do our best,’ she promised, ‘but, to be honest, the law is not on our side.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Iris’s mother said.
‘The current law doesn’t help us to help you,’ PC Quinlan said. ‘As it stands, for the Crown Prosecution Service to agree to prosecute, we’d need to be able to prove that this video was shared with intent to cause distress.’
‘What other reason would he have had for sharing it?’ Dad asked.
‘It might simply have been to score lad points,’ PC Lynch said with a shrug. ‘You know, get kudos from his peers?’
‘And that’s OK? Are you saying that’snotillegal?’
‘There’s been an extensive review and there’s a chance the law will change very soon,’ PC Quinlan said, ‘but for the moment—’
‘We could probably do more if Iris had been filmed without her knowledge,’ PC Lynch chimed in, ‘but she filmed herself and then shared the video willingly.’ He made a sweeping gesture with his hands, palms upwards, that Iris interpreted as:What do you expect?
‘Not with the whole school!’ Dad’s face was crimson. ‘She shared it with one person. Joshua Knoll is the one who shared it with everyone else. And that was without Iris’s consent!’
‘That will be hard to prove,’ PC Lynch said unhelpfully. ‘Joshua Knoll will deny it, say his phone was hacked, claim he’s a victim, too. It’s been a few days. He’s had time to get rid of anything incriminating on his phone or computer.’
‘What about the threat to share?’ Mum had spent hours every evening, sifting through stuff on the internet. ‘That’s illegal now, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, you’re right. That amendment came into effect recently,’ PC Quinlan said to Mum, and to Iris, ‘Did Joshua threaten to share the video?’
Iris thought about that text Josh had sent, ages ago, after they’d split up for the last time. The one where he’d said he couldn’t stop looking at photos of her and wouldn’t like anyone else to see her like that. His words were all vague and ambiguous. Classic Josh. He didn’t even say they were nude photos he was looking at. ‘Not really,’ she mumbled, studying her hands.
‘Iris is a minor,’ PC Quinlan pointed out. ‘Did Joshua send you intimate photos or videos, Iris?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘When we were … going out with each other.’
‘Well, that’s illegal,’ PC Quinlan said. ‘An adult can’t send intimate pictures to someone who’s underage.’
‘He wasn’t an adult at the time,’ Mum pointed out.
‘I deleted them,’ Iris said. She’d deleted them from the Cloud as well.
‘There will be a trace somewhere, I expect,’ Dad said, patting her arm.
Iris certainly hoped not.
