V erity Nevitt was just 21, a student living away from home for the first time, when she learned she and her twin sister, Lucy, were going to be sued in the high court. Someone knocked on the door of her London house share with a big bundle of papers and asked her to sign for them. A year earlier, the sisters had reported a man to the police, accusing him of sexually assaulting Verity and then, after she had left the house, raping Lucy. When the case was dropped by police, they decided to name him on social media, in order to warn others. The man responded by suing them for misuse of private information, harassment and eventually defamation. Their world was turned upside down: they had been the alleged victims but now they were the ones having to defend themselves. Twins Lucy Nevitt (with hairband) and Verity Nevitt in the House of Lords for the launch of the Index on Censorship report in October 2025. Photograph: Verity Nevitt “I didn’t want to engage with it,” Verity says.…