Two survivors are turning unimaginable trauma into a national campaign demanding legal reform, accountability, and public awareness around the sexual abuse of unconscious women.
Amanda Stanhope and Zoe Watts have waived their anonymity to launch #EndEyeCheck, a survivor-led movement challenging what they describe as dangerous legal and cultural blind spots surrounding drug-facilitated sexual abuse within relationships.
Their stories are horrifyingly similar.
Both women say they were repeatedly raped by partners while unconscious. Both describe waking up disoriented, bruised, or sensing something was deeply wrong without fully understanding why. And both say the abuse continued for years because unconscious women are too often treated as invisible victims — even inside their own homes.
The campaign’s name references the “eye check” some perpetrators allegedly use online to determine whether a woman is conscious enough to resist.
According to the campaign website, online forums and networks exist where men allegedly share methods, videos, and advice about drugging and assaulting partners while they sleep or are incapacitated.
For many people, the idea sounds impossible to comprehend.
For survivors, that disbelief is part of the problem.
The Abuse That Happens Behind Closed Doors
Sexual violence is often imagined as something committed by strangers in dark alleyways. But campaigns like #EndEyeCheck are forcing a confrontation with a more uncomfortable reality: many women are assaulted by people they trust, in places they are supposed to feel safest.
Zoe Watts says her husband secretly crushed sleeping medication into her drinks for years before raping her while unconscious. According to ITV News, he is now serving an 11-year prison sentence.
Amanda Stanhope says she was raped repeatedly by a former partner while unconscious from prescription medication. Her case never reached trial after the accused died before proceedings concluded.
Their stories expose how difficult these crimes can be to identify, report, and prosecute.
There are often no witnesses.
Victims may initially doubt their own memories.
Evidence disappears quickly.
And because the abuse frequently occurs within relationships, survivors say society struggles to recognise it as rape at all.
That cultural confusion is exactly what the campaign wants to dismantle.
Why Survivors Are Speaking Publicly
Historically, survivors of sexual violence have often been expected to carry shame privately while systems fail publicly.
But a growing number of women are rejecting silence altogether.
From Gisèle Pelicot in France to survivor-led legal campaigns across the UK and US, public testimony has become one of the most powerful tools in challenging how institutions respond to sexual violence.
#EndEyeCheck is part of that wider shift.
The campaign is demanding stronger laws around drug-facilitated rape, clearer recognition of unconscious victims in the legal system, and greater accountability for online communities that allegedly normalise or encourage abuse.
It also aims to create support networks for survivors who may not yet feel able to speak publicly.
Because many still don’t.
Research continues to show that shame, victim-blaming, and fear of disbelief remain major barriers preventing survivors from reporting abuse.
The Internet’s Dark Role
One of the most disturbing aspects of the campaign is its focus on online ecosystems that allegedly facilitate sexual violence.
According to the #EndEyeCheck campaign, survivors discovered digital spaces where abuse against unconscious women was discussed, encouraged, and traded as content.
Experts increasingly warn that online platforms are not simply passive hosts but environments where sexual exploitation can be amplified, normalised, and distributed at scale.
That raises urgent questions about platform responsibility.
Who removes abusive content?
Who investigates private networks?
And why do survivors so often feel forced to fight these systems alone?
The internet has transformed how abuse operates — but legal systems have struggled to evolve at the same speed.
The Cultural Shift Around Consent
At the core of the campaign is one blunt message:
An unconscious person cannot consent.
It sounds obvious. But survivors and advocates argue that society still fails to treat this principle with the seriousness it deserves, especially when abuse occurs inside marriages or long-term relationships.
For decades, relationship status distorted public understanding of sexual violence.
Marriage was incorrectly associated with implied access.
Long-term intimacy blurred perceptions of consent.
Women were taught to minimise discomfort to preserve relationships.
Campaigns like #EndEyeCheck directly challenge those ideas.
Consent is not permanent.
Consent is not automatic.
And sleeping, drugged, or unconscious women are not sexually available simply because they are in relationships.
That message feels particularly urgent in a cultural moment where younger generations are increasingly interrogating old assumptions around power, coercion, and bodily autonomy.
Why This Campaign Matters
What makes #EndEyeCheck resonate so deeply is that it exposes a form of violence many people rarely discuss openly.
Not because it is rare.
Because it is hidden.
These crimes happen in bedrooms, marriages, homes, and relationships that outwardly appear normal.
And survivors often spend years trying to convince themselves that what happened was real.
By speaking publicly, Amanda Stanhope and Zoe Watts are forcing visibility onto abuse that thrives in silence.
They are also reminding people that sexual violence is not always loud, physically forceful, or immediately visible.
Sometimes it looks like confusion.
Memory gaps.
Sedation.
A woman wakes up with the feeling that something is wrong, but no language yet for what happened.
And perhaps that is why campaigns like this matter so profoundly.
Because before justice can happen, society first has to believe what it would rather not see.
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