LICENCE TO LET RAPISTS GO FREE
After sex attack victims told to hand phones to police, backlash from critics who fear it’s a...
RAPISTS will escape justice unless police chiefs scrap plans to ask victims to hand over their phones, campaigners warned last night.
They branded the demand for complainants to reveal passwords to phones, computers and tablets ‘a public relations disaster in the criminal justice system’.
MPs, lawyers and victims rounded on police bosses for approving a consent form that lets detectives trawl through texts, emails, photographs and social media posts.
The form, which is being deployed by 43 forces, tells victims their case may be dropped if they fail to agree.
A victim of black cab rapist John Worboys said victims were effectively being put on trial and many would decide not to press on with rape allegations.
‘It can’t be right for police to drop rape cases if victims don’t want to give over their phones and have all their messages from
Uproar over rape victims forced to endure ‘digital strip searches’ From yesterday’s Daily mail
friends and family looked through and potentially used against them,’ said Carrie Symonds.
‘Yet another way the victim is made to feel like the one really on trial.
‘It’s not just a violation of the victim’s privacy but that of anyone that has ever texted, Whats-Apped, sent pictures to their phone. One friend of mine was told by a police officer that if she handed over her phone, the Crown Prosecution Service would “rip her life apart”.
‘Demanding the victim hand over their phone and all the data on it, intimidates many women enough not to push ahead with rape charges. They are made to feel that it’s not worth doing. That the experience would be so traumatic it’s better to just forget about it.
‘Intrusion of privacy’ ‘Pestered for casual sex’
‘The fear is police use the threat of this intrusion of privacy to get victims to drop their charges, regardless of whether they believe the victim was raped or not.’
Miss Symonds, a former Tory political aide, has previously waived her anonymity to speak out about her experiences. Two women are already preparing legal challenges to the ‘digital device extraction form’.
Officers insist they will ask for relevant material only.
But it emerged yesterday that detectives are demanding phone and social media passwords from complainants who had no prior contact with their attacker.
Policing minister Nick Hurd was urged to scrap the document as MPs queued up in the Commons to attack the plan.
Labour’s Harriet Harman shared an email she received from a young woman who had been attacked by a stranger yet was still asked for her phone and other digital records.
The woman wrote: ‘I lie awake at night worrying about the details of private conversations with friends, boyfriends, business contacts, family, that are now in the hands of police. It is a gross intrusion into my privacy and theirs.
‘I feel completely as if I am the one on trial.’
Miss Harman said the consent form was far too extensive and a rethink was needed. Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said the form should be rewritten, adding: ‘This looks as if you are going to have your phone taken away, potentially for several months and the police will be able to look into all corners of it, every aspect of your life – that any of this information could be given to the person who has raped you and there are no safeguards in place at all.
‘It really is pretty obvious that this form will deter people from coming forward.’
Change UK MP Chris Leslie added: ‘This is nothing short of a public relations disaster in our criminal justice system.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described the consent form as a ‘disturbing move’.
In the House of Lords, Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove said: ‘To ask people to sign this document without having legal representation is not right.’
Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe said: ‘It will be seen as an intrusion into the privacy of a victim. This seems to be a backward step.’
Mr Hurd said he was open to discussing with the police and others about how the language on the form could be improved.
It was devised following the disclosure scandal, when a string of rape and serious sexual assault cases collapsed after crucial evidence emerged at the last minute.
Among the most high profile was that of student Liam Allan, then 22, who had charges of rape and serious sexual assault against him dropped when it emerged that the complainant pestered him for casual sex.
Mr Allan, who works with the campaign group Innovation of Justice, told the BBC: ‘The consent form is a good step, as long as it’s carried out in the right way, as long as it’s not trawling through unnecessary information.
‘I was innocent. I was asked to give over my phone. Does that mean I lose all my rights to privacy because I was accused?
‘It has to work both ways. We deserve the same rights until the point of conviction.’
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘ The police have acknowledged that the use of personal data in criminal investigations is a source of anxiety and that they understand the need to balance a respect for privacy with the need to pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry. The police and the CPS will work with victims and the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure that the right approach is being taken.’
Nick ephgrave of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: ‘We understand that how personal data is used can be a source of anxiety. We would never want victims to feel that they can’t report crimes because of intrusion in their data.’