I never reported my rapist and he raped someone else
Short post but I just saw a tweet that reminded me about it.
For context, my (25F) rapist (26M) was my first boyfriend in college. He raped me on my 21st birthday when I got super drunk and took videos and pictures (which is how I found out it happened). He's always been super aggressive sexually and would hit me and choke me during sex even after I asked him to stop and we eventually broke up and lost contact.
Last year, we ran into each other and we had a short conversation. He told me he lost contact with his friends from college, and when I asked why he told me they were fake friends who didn't trust him. After a little probing he said he was at a party with a girl, got super drunk, went back to her place where she passed out so he just fell asleep on the couch next to her and when he woke up she was calling him a rapist. I told him that was terrible and that was pretty much where the conversation ended.
I never told anyone what he did and I'm pretty sure he raped that girl and was lying to me/his friends/himself. I know * I * didn't rape her, and even if I reported it no one would have believed me (I've been through similar before), but there's still always gonna be a pit in my stomach gnawing at me that there was a chance for me to protect someone and I failed because I was scared and lazy.