The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has discontinued its case against three women including the executive director of Southall Black Sisters for assaulting a woman in King’s Cross underground station last year.
Selma Taha, executive director of Southall Black Sisters along with Divina Riggon and Danae Thomas say they themselves were victims of a violent racist attack in September 2023.
According to the three women they were the victims of an attack by a woman who made monkey sounds at them and called the three “Black bitches” and “slaves”. It then escalated into violence when the assailant pulled clumps of hair off two of the women and also bit Ms Selma which required a tetanus and hepatitis injection.
In a statement, Selma Taha said: “As relieved as I am about the decision being in our favour for it has been hard-fought, I continue to feel aggrieved at the treatment my sisters and I have received.
“From being subjected to vile racist slurs and significant injuries on public transport in the presence of an off-duty officer I would have expected more responsibility and a duty of care from, to being disbelieved and criminalised by the CPS for challenging the racist abuse, the past 10 months have reaffirmed my lack of faith in the system and served as a daily reminder of the challenges we are up against as Black, minoritised and migrant victim-survivors seeking a just response from an institutionally racist system.”
“As the executive director of a ‘by and for’ VAWG organisation such as Southall Black Sisters, at each stage, I’ve also worried about other Black women being in my position, knowing that not all of them have the platform I do to raise awareness about the systemic injustice we are subjected to on a daily basis. I thank everyone who has supported us for the past several months – your strength and solidarity have kept us going.”
A CPS spokesperson said: “We have a duty to keep all cases under continuous review and following information received in the past few days, we decided that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction, and these charges were discontinued.”
 has discontinued its case against three women including the executive director of Southall Black Sisters for assaulting a woman in King’s Cross underground station last year.){kind=link}