Don’t call all rape accusers victims, police told
oNE of the country’s most senior judges yesterday told police to stop calling those who report rape or sexual assaults ‘victims’.
No one in a sex case is a victim until the crime has been proved by a guilty plea or a guilty verdict, Lord Justice Gross said.
In a powerful rebuke to police chiefs, the Appeal judge said there should be a change of culture in police forces to ensure that allegations are properly investigated and that those who make accusations are not automatically believed.
The criticism of police for failing to deal properly with sex cases, delivered in a speech to criminal lawyers, amounts to a demand from the judiciary to an end to the ideology of victimhood. It follows a series of collapsed rape trials and scandals over heavy-handed and futile police investigations of historic sex abuse allegations.
Lord Justice Gross said that in cases where there was a question over whether a crime had been committed, ‘the complainant remains a complainant and is not a victim unless or until there is a plea or verdict of guilty’. He added: ‘This is not pedantry or
‘Open-minded approach’
semantics. It is the starting point for clear thinking, conducive to the maintenance of an open mind, the investigative mindset.’
The judge referred to rape cases in which the police blundered, including that of Liam Allan, 22, a student whose trial collapsed last year after evidence from mobile phones showed his supposed victim had continually pestered him for casual sex.
Lord Justice Gross also said he shared the view of Sir Richard Henriques, the retired judge who inquired into the failed Metropolitan Police ‘operation Midland’ investigation of supposed historic sex crimes.
During the £3million Midland inquiry into accusations made by an informant known only as Nick, detectives raided the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall, the late former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
Sir Richard identified no fewer than 43 separate police blunders and said it was time for officers to stop automatically believing the accounts of alleged victims.
Lord Justice Gross said he agreed with Sir Richard. Police officers, he said, need an investigative mindset, which he defined as ‘an inquirying, open-minded approach, capable of sensing what might be material from the defence perspective’.