The questions which haunt rape victim whose case shocked the world
For Chanel Miller, dealing with the horrifying aftermath of becoming a rape victim was difficult enough.
But it was the weeks, months and even years after the attack which were made even more unbearable by the persistent and senseless questions people would ask her.
The 27-year-old, who was given the name Emily Doe to protect her identity, was raped by Stanford undergraduate and elite swimmer Brock Turner, then 19, after a frat party in January 2015.
She found it almost impossible to steer clear of the intense media coverage surrounding her rape, and when coming across an online story, the accompanying public comments were too intriguing to avoid.
“There were many hateful words,” she revealed to 60 Minutes in the US in her first public interview since the attack.
She said there was constant questioning of aspects of her evening. She believed in many ways people were almost blaming her actions that night for the attack.
“What was she doing at a frat party?”
“Why was she alone?”
“Why would you ever get that drunk?”
These were the more common questions Ms Miller would stumble across.
“It was endless,” she revealed.
‘Rape is not a punishment for getting drunk’
Yet it wasn’t just strangers who were asking these questions. Those who knew Ms Miller personally were expressing similar viewpoints, which was a bitter pill for her to swallow.
Ms Miller believes there is a deep-rooted problem within certain parts of society that lays partial blame on someone who becomes a victim of rape while intoxicated.
“Rape is not a punishment for getting drunk,” she told 60 Minutes.
“We have these sick minds in our culture that think you deserve rape if you drink to excess,” she said.
“You deserve a hangover, a really bad hangover, but you don’t deserve to have somebody insert their body parts inside of you.”
Ms Miller’s rape ended when two Swedish graduate students, Peter Jonsson and Carl Arndt, rushed to her aid when witnessing Turner on top of her unconscious body behind a dumpster.
They set chase after Turner who fled the scene, managing to pin him down before police arrived.
During 60 Minutes’ show, she was reunited with Mr Johnsson and Mr Arndt.
“[Meeting them] was just really wonderful,” she revealed.
“When I’m around them I feel safe, I feel a lot of joy.”
Victim slams ‘white privilege’ sentencing
Ms Miller also discussed the emotional trauma of the courtroom proceedings and the privilege that Brock Turner received because he was a decorated athlete.
"I don't understand why it is relevant how quickly he can move across a body of water," said Miller regarding an article that referenced Turner's swimming credentials while discussing her assault.
Ms Miller said Turner and his legal team did everything they could to change the narrative and discredit her story.
"After Brock's testimony, it felt like all rules had been abandoned. He will go to any end to come out of this without a guilty conviction. And for me, it felt like, how many times can we make her relive this?" Ms Miller recalled.
Turner was found guilty of all counts but received a lenient six-month sentence despite the impassioned victim statement Miller delivered to the court and judge before sentencing.
He was out of prison after three months on parole.
Turner's lenient sentence was met with outrage across the world, leading many, including Ms Miller, to cite white privilege.
"I was in shock. So you're saying I just put aside a year and a half of my life so that he could go to county jail for three months," Ms Miller said.
"There are young men, particularly young men of colour, serving longer sentences for non-violent crimes, for having ... marijuana in their pockets. ... And he's going to serve one month for each felony. How can you explain that to me?"
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