ULRIKA: RAPE NO LONGER A CRIME
Big drop in suspects facing trial
SEX attack survivor Ulrika Jonsson says rape convictions have plummeted so low “it’s no longer a crime”.
The TV presenter, who was dateraped in a hotel room at 19, said the 30% drop in convictions last year was like taking a backwards step.
She blasted the Crown Prosecution Service for only pursing the strongest cases, claiming sex attackers were getting away with it.
Ulrika, 53, said: “How difficult the CPS are making it for the police to put forward cases that unless there’s a very good prospect of conviction, then forget about it.
“Which means that clearly there are incidences where sexual assaults and rapes are taking place and people are getting away with it now because it’s no longer a crime.”
After Ulrika revealed her ordeal in a 2002 memoir, she received some sympathy but felt others questioned whether she had made it up. Though she needed hospital treatment for her injuries she said it never occurred to her to report it as it happened at a hotel.
She said: “People were like: ‘ Why didn’t you go to the police?’ Because there was no such thing as date rape in those days. Women are kind of born culpable. It’s always somehow our fault.’’
Ulrika said she did not think about reporting it because there were people close to her to consider. She said UK prosecutors had taken a “backwards step” in sex crime investigations.
A report by Victims’ Commissioner
Dame Vera Baird showed the number of prosecutions for rape in England and Wales in 2019- 20 was at its lowest level since records began – and 30% lower than the previous year.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “In every case we apply the Code for Crown Prosecutors and will prosecute whenever our legal test is met, no matter how challenging the case.
“We are working with police to understand the reasons for the gap between the number of reported cases and those which are referred to the CPS and then reach court.”
People are just getting away with it now