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Woman's Hour: MP rape allegations, Mothers' march, Melissa Caddick

MP rape allegations, Mothers' march, Melissa Caddick

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, MP rape allegations, Mothers' march, Melissa Caddick

An un-named Conservative MP has been accused of rape several times.

An unidentified Conservative MP has been accused of rape by several women.  These allegations are mentioned in a new book by former cabinet secretary Nadine Dorries. It comes after reports the Conservative party's former chairman, Sir Jake Berry, wrote to the police to make them aware of the claims after leaving the post last year. The deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, has denied a cover-up by the party when he was the chairman.  Emma Barnett hears the reaction of Isabel Hardman, Assistant Editor at The Spectator, and Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee.

A group of mothers under the umbrella of Just Stop Oil are planning a slow march to demand an end to new oil and gas licences and to call for a secure liveable future for their children.  Just Stop Oil's tactics around the country, from blocking roads to halting theatre productions, are controversial.  Emma is joined by two of the protesting mums.  

When con woman Melissa Caddick vanished from her luxurious eastern Sydney home in November 2020 - with only her partially decomposed foot found washed up on a beach months later, it set off a frenzy in Australia. Regulators suspect the 49-year-old stole nearly £16m from more than 60 clients, including many of her family and friends, to help fund a lavish lifestyle. Chief investigative reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald, Kate McClymont, joins Emma to discuss.

We hear about a development in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old Kenyan woman who was found stabbed to death at a hotel in the garrison town of Nanyuki in 2012. Witnesses said she was last seen leaving the hotel bar with a British soldier, and her body was found in a septic tank at the hotel nearly three months later. A Kenyan judge concluded after an inquest in 2019 that she had been murdered by one or two British soldiers.  As yet, nobody has been convicted. Kenyan police have now flown to the UK to question British soldiers and officers about the case.  Emma speaks to Sunday Times journalist Hannah Al-Othman.

Sarah Whalley is the producer and director of Forests, an episode of Planet Earth III. She was pregnant during filming and chose to name her child Forest. Sarah talks to Emma about how the isolation of her pregnancy during lockdown was mirrored when they filmed a Hornbill bird in its nest for the first time.

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