Rape Victims 'Not Being Taken Seriously' As Prosecutions Fall to Five-Year Low

The Telegraph
October 27, 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10407493/Rape-victims-not-being-taken-seriously-as-prosecutions-fall-to-five-year-low.html

Emily Thornberry, who uncovered the figures using a written parliamentary question, claimed she had been in contact with rape victims' charities who said cases were being dropped that could have been sent to the CPS

The number of rape cases the police are referring to prosecutors has tumbled to its lowest level in five years prompting fears that adult victims in Jimmy Savile-like historic abuse cases are not being taken seriously as under-pressure officers ''cut corners''.

Police forces in the last financial year sent 5,404 rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for it to decide whether to charge alleged offenders - over 2,700 less than in 2010-11, CPS figures released by Solicitor General Oliver Heald showed.

The drop-off came despite a steady increase in the number of rapes reported to the police in England and Wales between 2008 and 2013, prompting shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry to voice concerns that officers under pressure following budget cuts may be ''cutting corners''.

Ms Thornberry, who uncovered the figures using a written parliamentary question, claimed she had been in contact with rape victims' charities who said cases were being dropped that could have been sent to the CPS.

She told the Press Association: ''I think on the face of it this is a very worrying trend.

''The CPS is doing a lot of work on trying to improve the way in which they prosecute these cases and that is to be applauded but if they are not being given the cases to prosecute you have to ask why that is.

''I don't know the answer to that. I do though know the police have been subjected to 20% cuts and they are difficult cases to prosecute with vulnerable prosecution witnesses that take a lot of time.

''I'm seriously concerned that there may be corners being cut.''

She went on: ''The police are under huge pressure to produce results, to get convictions. Targeting cases that are easier to get convictions on, I can understand that. I don't know whether that is the case or not but I worry that it may be.

''I'm obviously in close contact with a lot of organisations that help victims and their view is that cases are being dropped that shouldn't be dropped.

''There is no further action, they are taking the decision in the wrong way too often.

''I think that the difficulty is that these cases are hard and you have to have focus and they need resources and they need to be priorities. At a time of stress and strain and cutbacks It is very easy to lose site of the importance of these cases.''

The charity Rape Crisis expressed fears the police may not be taking victims of so-called historic abuse cases seriously at a time when public understanding of sexual violence and the number of victims coming forward is at a uniquely high level following the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal and subsequent police investigations.

Katie Russell, of Rape Crisis, said what appears to be a decrease in justice for rape victims was ''counter-intuitive'' and undermined efforts by police forces to improve their handling of such cases.

She said: ''We are certainly across the country seeing anecdotally a rise in particularly survivors of what is sometimes referred to as historic abuse coming forward, either to the police or to support agencies like Rape Crisis.

''If that's translating into reduced referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service obviously our fear would be that so-called historical cases and particularly cases where adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse come forward are not being handled as well or sufficiently or taken as seriously as they might be.

''It seems really obtuse at this current moment which is almost unique arguably in terms of how much public awareness and understanding of sexual violence has been generated over the last year by media coverage of the Savile scandal and the subsequent Yewtree investigation and other similar cases.

''It would seem quite counter-intuitive that that period coincides with what essentially, certainly seems at first-glance a reduction in the levels of criminal justice for survivors so it is certainly a concern.''

Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker admitted he was concerned by the fall in number of CPS referrals.

He said the Government had already met with the Director of Public Prosecutions and police leaders and agreed to establish a CPS-police scrutiny panel to look at how forces are dealing with rape cases.

Mr Baker said: ''Police reform is working and crime is down. However, I am determined to drive through the government's commitments to improve the criminal justice system's response to rape, to encourage more victims to seek help and to bring more perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice and to push up level of convictions.

''The government is concerned by the falls in referrals from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is why we held a round-table with the director of public prosecutions and national policing leads.

''A number of actions are now being taken forward including establishing a joint CPS-police scrutiny panel to review whether there is different local practice in the way rape cases are referred.

''I take this area of work very seriously.''

The total number of rape-flagged cases referred to the CPS by police forces in England and Wales for a charging decision in each of the last five years is as follows:

2008-9 - 6,597 cases referred

2009-10 - 7,683

2010-11 - 8,130

2011-12 - 6,822

2012-13 - 5,404

The CPS figures were released by Solicitor General Oliver Heald in response to a parliamentary question from shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry.

The steady decrease since 2011 comes despite the number of rape complaints recorded by the police increasing steadily from 13,096 in 2008-9 to 17,061 in 2012-13.