Most rape cases likely to fail: data

Only a third of all the rape charges heard in courts throughout New Zealand in the past five years resulted in a conviction.

Now there are renewed calls to overhaul New Zealand’s court system – advocates and Government ministers alike believe the low conviction rate is stopping people from making a complaint.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice, released under the Official Information Act, show 61 per cent of rape allegations in New Zealand were not proven. There was a 35 per cent conviction rate.

Sexual violence survivor advocate Louise Nicholas believed New Zealand needed to move away from the ‘‘broken’’ adversarial court system, to a judge, two lay people and no jury.

‘‘We have to look at more of a inquisitive system where all the facts are put to the court. Where there is no theatrics on behalf of defence counsel,’’ Nicholas said.

‘‘I absolutely believe that will encourage more people to come forward because a lot of our survivors are afraid of the jury system. They are afraid those people are going to judge them.’’

Justice Minister Andrew Little said the system was ‘‘failing too many victims and it’s not acceptable’’.

‘‘It’s not right that so many victims of sexual violence don’t get justice.’’

He believed the Government needed to look at the way trials were conducted.

Police adult sexual assault and child protection national manager Detective Inspector Dave Kirby said research consistently demonstrated incidents of rape, sexual offences and child abuse were significantly under-reported, under-prosecuted and underconvicted.

A 2006 Australian research paper showed that 74 per cent of alleged offenders in adult sex offence cases in the High Court were acquitted of all charges. A 2010 research paper using data from Australia, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland and United States showed about 32.5 per cent of sexual assault charges resulted in convictions at court.

‘‘It’s not right that so many victims of sexual violence don’t get justice.’’ Justice Minister Andrew Little

Kirby said there were several reasons for low conviction rates internationally, including lack of witnesses or medical evidence and proving whether a person consented or not.

He added due to the nature of reports of sexual assault, it could be difficult obtaining sufficient evidence.

‘‘We always strive to conduct thorough investigations, with the victim’s interest at heart, and always want to do the best we can in coming to a satisfactory conclusion.’’

Chief victims advisor to the Government, Dr Kim McGregor, said the conviction rate was ‘‘terrible’’, and hoped changes would be made. ‘‘I think we have the best opportunity for a very long time to improve this system for complainants.’’