Rape trial backlog poses a ‘threat to justice’

Delays lasting ‘many years’ lead to collapse of cases and criminals going free, warns government body

THE number of rape victims waiting over a year for justice in the courts has risen more than fivefold during the pandemic, the public spending body has found. The National Audit Office said such delays from court backlogs would last for “many years” resulting in more victims withdrawing from prosecutions, more cases collapsing and more alleged rapists pleading not guilty to exploit the fading memories of witnesses.

The number of victims waiting over a year across all crimes quadrupled, up 302 per cent from 2,830 on March 31 2020 to 11,379 cases on June 30 this year, but rape and sexual assault victims have been hardest hit, increasing 435 per cent from 246 to 1,316 over the same period.

This is partly fuelled by the higher proportion of rape and sex cases going to trial because alleged perpetrators plead not guilty. These delays have been blamed for contributing to a fall in rape convictions to a record low of under 2 per cent of the growing number of offences.

According to the NAO, the Ministry of Justice expects the “significant backlogs” to continue for several years with cases awaiting crown court trial remaining up to 27 per cent higher than prepandemic levels by November 2024.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said the impact of the backlog on victims, witnesses and defendants was “severe” and the MOJ needed to “work effectively with its partners in the criminal justice system to minimise the delays to justice”.

The crown court waits highlighted by the NAO only cover the time between a case being referred to it by the Crown Prosecution Service and the trial. It does not include time for police investigation and the CPS preparing the case.

Separate CPS figures showed the delay between police referring a case to the CPS and a decision to charge had risen from 155 days to 170.2 days or nearly six months, in the space of a single quarter. “Waiting longer to give evidence in trial is associated with more witnesses and victims withdrawing from the process,” the NAO said.

The MOJ said its rollout of remote video for trials and Nightingale courts had stabilised the backlog in the crown courts, while it was falling in magistrates’ courts. Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, said new scorecards next month would hold every part of the criminal justice system to account. They would “make sure there is no hiding place and no excuses – victims deserve to see more rape cases reaching the CPS and more prosecutions reaching court as swiftly as possible”.