He went on: “I agree with consequence tradition. It’s essential to undergo penalties due to your actions… If the consequence of what I did is that I lose my profession, I settle for that. My profession is superficial and it has a shelf life. Breaking the stigma of home abuse is not going to occur if it continues to be handled frivolously. But when something I’ve to say helps somebody earlier than they attain their breaking level, I believe that must be a great factor.”

No matter how he feels now, or who he has labored to grow to be, there must be penalties for his actions — even Meighan himself presupposed to agree with that. However apart from 200 hours of group service and a few unhealthy press, Meighan has not precisely confronted penalties that match the seriousness of his crime. In truth, he’s now, three years later, probably being celebrated in his business.

Penalties aren’t solely about guaranteeing that abusers are punished — it is also in regards to the message being despatched to different culprits and to their victims.

“Ought to these males win an award, the organisers ought to take into account how girls who’ve survived home abuse and rape will really feel watching somebody already convicted, in addition to an alleged rapist, being celebrated in such a public manner,” Girls’s Assist head of media Teresa Parker stated. “At Girls’s Assist we might urge organisers to contemplate how they method this, as for a lot of survivors of abuse, these males’s inclusion on the listing will already be an indication that these crimes are usually not taken critically – the music business has to contemplate the influence on girls of who they rejoice, and the way they rejoice them.”

In different phrases, the BRITs’ determination goes far past Meighan’s particular person story — no matter how sorry he’s now or he a lot works he has completed on himself, the choice to rejoice him sends a chilling message to victims of home abuse all over the place.

And these messages have a real-world influence. Studies from Refuge have proven that 1 / 4 of girls will expertise home abuse all through their lives — nevertheless, fewer than 24% of home abuse crimes are reported to the police. In different phrases, home abuse is a widespread challenge — and but we nonetheless have not created a tradition wherein girls really feel they’ll obtain the assist they should truly report it. And celebrating a convicted abuser definitely is not going to assist.

In a world the place cancel tradition stays a sizzling matter, the BRITs’ determination to longlist Meighan proves that so typically, an abuser’s life and profession can proceed on. In the meantime, girls within the UK nonetheless really feel unable to come back ahead about abuse for concern they will not be believed, or, that their abusers will not face penalties. And in some instances, these abusers are even publicly celebrated.

GLAMOUR reached out to the BRIT Awards for remark.