In her powerful victim impact statement, the Stanford sexual assault survivor – known until yesterday as ‘Emily Doe’ – directly addressed her rapist, Brock Turner as she said: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.” Now, ahead of the release of her memoir, Know My Name, Chanel Miller has revealed her identity.

Miller’s case sparked outrage in 2016, shining a light on the biased defence of white, college-educated athletes after Turner received a pathetic six-month sentence for his crime – of which he only served three months in county jail.

In a video on CBS News, released ahead of her 60 Minutes appearance on September 22, Miller reads from her statement. She says: “In newspapers my name was ‘unconscious intoxicated woman’. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am.”

According to publisher Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Miller’s book “will reclaim the story of her sexual assault, expose the arduous nature of the legal system, and emerge as a bold, unifying voice”.

Andrea Schulz, editor-in-chief, said Miller’s “experience illuminates a culture built to protect perpetrators and a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable.”

In 2015, Miller was discovered by two Stanford University graduates behind a dumpster, half-naked and unconscious, with Turner “thrusting” his body on top of her. The then 20-year-old was given a lenient punishment by a judge who believed “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him”, before claiming “I think he will not be a danger to others”.

Turner’s status as a ‘star swimmer’ was used in his defence throughout the case, while his father shamefully claimed a prison sentence would be “a steep price… for 20 minutes of action”.

In her courageous and moving statement, Miller described the night of her attack to the court, recalling how she learned the painful details of her case via articles online. “I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt,” she wrote. “We cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault. We should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error.”

“To girls everywhere, I am with you,” Miller concluded. “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. Although I can’t save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you can’t be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served.”

After the case, California changed its sexual assault laws to make it mandatory for rapists to serve their sentences in state, not county, prison, and to allow victims to use the word ‘rape’ in court even if their attack doesn’t meet the technical definition. Aaron Persky, the judge in the case, was also removed from office in 2018 after being recalled by voters.

As her CBS clip comes to an end, Miller breaks down as she says: “You cannot give me back the life I had.” 

Chanel Miller will appear on CBS’ 60 Minutes on September 22, and her book, Know My Name is out September 24 on Penguin’s Viking imprint