Rape victims ‘could face shaming on social media’

RAPE victims could face social media shaming if police were forced to hand over all mobile phone evidence to lawyers, a senior officer has warned.

Sara Thornton, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the prospect of having their personal lives exposed in court might deter some victims from coming forward.

She spoke out after several trials collapsed because information undermining each case was released at a late stage to the defence. Ms Thornton said police could not hand over all digital material relating to a case.

‘We cannot allow people to be put off reporting to us because they fear intrusion into their lives.’

“We cannot allow people to be put off reporting to us because they fear intrusion into their lives and private information that’s not relevant to the crime being shared in court – the digital equivalent of the tired trope of women in short skirts ‘asking for it’,” she said on the NPCC website.

“This is why the idea of handing all the unused material to the defence won’t work, it would go beyond what is reasonable and proportionate.”

Ms Thornton said that, in future, investigators would have to explore what reasonable lines of inquiry might arise from information stored digitally. This could involve using private companies to comb through vast digital archives.