Charities blast rape trial plan
RAPE victims face being held overnight in cells and forced to give evidence in trials under new guidance issued to prosecutors.
The Crown Office are determined to ensure “reluctant complainers” are made to turn up to court, in a bid to make sure more rape cases make it to trial.
But campaigners said last night the “perverse” shift in policy will traumatise and degrade victims even further.
The Crown’s guidance states: “The decision as to whether or not a case will be prosecuted is one to be taken by the Crown in the public interest.”
Rape Crisis Scotland fear it will make women less inclined to report rapes.
Just one in five rape victims report their attacks to Police Scotland.
In the last year, there were 1878 rapes and attempted rapes reported to the police but only 98 convictions.
In an open letter to the Crown Office, Rape Crisis Scotland chief executive Sandy Brindley said: “Rape complainers have described the court process as being ‘worse than being raped’.
“It seems to us perverse that someone who has been through an extremely traumatic experience – and demonstrates the courage and resilience to report this experience to the police – is then faced with the prospect of having a warrant issued for her arrest because she has been treated so badly by the very system that is supposed to protect her.”
She added that the policy could lead to victims feeling their only option is to withdraw their complaint by pretending they made up an allegation or consented.
A Crown spokesman said: “Prosecutors have a responsibility to hold the perpetrators of serious sexual offences to account and seek to protect the public from dangerous offenders.”
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