EDINBURGH West MP Michelle Thomson has been largely denied the chance to make an impact at Westminster.

Since controversy over her property dealings saw her resign the SNP whip, just four months after being elected, her profile in the House of Commons has been low.

That changed yesterday, when her frank account of her experience of being raped, 37 years ago at the age of 14, transfixed her fellow MPs and moved Speaker John Bercow to tears. Her words, he said, had “left an indelible impression on us all”.

The personal revelation – during a debate about preventing violence against women – was candid and powerful. Its significance was not so much in the detail of the ordeal Ms Thomson described. Indeed, the events she related were in many ways familiar: the fact that her attacker was known to her; that she was unable to tell those close to her, let alone the police; and that it took years for her to deal with the impact. Ms Thomson felt “guilt, anger, fear, sadness, bitterness, for years,” she said.

So much of what she said – clearly and articulately – coincides with the accounts of other rape victims, including the internal conversations about whether she was to blame or could have done things differently.

The extent of that emotional cost, and the degree to which it was directed inwards in the form of self-revulsion, was also striking.

This reminder of the internal turmoil caused by rape and sexual abuse, the lasting effects, and the sheer amount of time that has to pass before some survivors of sexual attacks can speak out is particularly relevant at present. The unfolding abuse scandal over football clubs and coaching is throwing up many more examples of victims unable to speak up, of criminals never brought to justice and emotional damage bottled up and left to fester. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is to bring forward legislation to overcome the unfair time bar that prevents many survivors from bringing civil cases against abusers because they have left it “too late”.

Pop music’s Lady Gaga this week revealed a rape at 19 that left her with a stress disorder that still affects her daily. Another MP, former actress Tracy Brabin, spoke in the same debate as Ms Thomson about the lasting impact of an attempted rape. The value of these stories is in changing attitudes and improving understanding of rape as a crime of violence and power – not sex, and explaining why some people only manage to report these crimes decades after the fact.

But much more importantly, they can encourage other victims to realise they are not alone, or to feel that if they come forward they will be taken seriously. Rape Crisis Scotland’s Coordinator Sandy Brindley says speaking so publicly about rape can send a strong message to other survivors – that the shame is not theirs, and it is okay to talk about it.

At present an independent MP, Ms Thomson may or may not eventually be reinstated to the SNP whip after Police Scotland confirmed in September that it was not investigating her over any wrongdoing.

Regardless of that, her taboo-tackling speech yesterday was a brave and important way to make her mark.