- A rape victim has met her attacker in prison to tell him she has forgiven him – and called it a “great” experience to seek “peace and forgiveness together”.
- Katja Rosenberg, 40, from London, said she had felt forgiving soon after the 2006 rape, feeling things must have gone wrong in her attacker’s life.
“You wouldn’t ever do that if you felt happy,” she told BBC Radio 5 live.
Of their meeting last year, she said he was “completely” remorseful and “so focused” on no longer being violent.
Ms Rosenberg’s attacker, who was 16 at the time, was jailed for 14 years after admitting her rape and another of a 51-year-old woman shortly afterwards.
With the support of the Probation Service, she visited him in prison last September.
Partly, this was motivated by a wish to assure him “life’s not hopeless, that he knows he’s got a future”, she said. - “I just felt I could give that. I also thought the exchange would be good for me to somehow get some kind of closure – I mean, I didn’t really need a ‘Sorry’, but it was somehow just good to see that you walk into the same direction of peace and forgiveness together.”
- She added: “He was in no way looking for excuses or explanations. He was very, very self-effacing – and I thought that was fantastic in itself.
- “He just really is very, very upset about his past.”
- In the Daily Mirror newspaper, columnist Alison Phillips said Ms Rosenberg’s story was “incredibly inspirational” and that she had “taken control of what happened to her that day”.
- Ms Rosenberg told 5 live: “It’s just great to go to a healthy place together. It’s just great to go to a place that overrides or reaches beyond what happened.”
Kindness Blog 
Praise God that healing in both lives can truly begin. How many of us go through life with much less things happening to us, and we cannot find forgiveness and closure. This should inspire many to take that step towards healing. Thank you for sharing.
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Wow that is true courage and compassion. I have been reading a book, “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsh that really preaches how we need a shift in consciousness and a world full of compassion and love for all living beings, as we are all connected.
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What a beautiful demonstration of heart felt forgiveness. 🙂
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it all comes down to love of others and love of self. If u can’t love yourself mostly brought on from past you cant learn to love others. Thanks for sharing this .
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Thank you.
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Hello Katja,
Thank you so much for stopping by and for your inspiring actions. Yours is one of the most beautiful examples of forgiveness that we have encountered, and we are all bettered simply for knowing it happened.
Kind regards, Curtis.
Team Kindness Blog
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Reblogged on sethi51 . Thank you . This is really a beautiful story of courage , kindness and healing which would inspire others .
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Reblogged this on dsethi05.
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