CPS failures

SIR – We note with concern recent claims that Alison Saunders is being considered for a damehood in the New Year Honours list. Alison Saunders’ tenure at the helm of the Crown Prosecution Service will rightly be held in infamy for the series of catastrophic failures that defined it.

As victims of the fallout that followed the CPS’s failure to meet its legal disclosure obligations and pursue all lines of investigation, both of us suffered enormous harm.

As a consequence of the toxic “convictions at any cost” approach that the CPS apparently took to certain cases, we were wronged by a justice system that was supposed to protect us. In the botched processes that followed, many lost jobs, homes and relationships. It appears to us that many of the issues raised have still not been properly resolved. The steps taken this year in response to our cases, while necessary first steps, go no way near far enough to reverse the wrongs of the past.

Such devastating failures cannot be allowed to ever happen again. That’s why – as victims – we say that the exception must be made to the “automatic gong principle” for Alison Saunders. Future Directors of Public Prosecutions must know that wreaking such misery will have consequences for them. Ms Saunders must not be rewarded for failure. Only by addressing the past will fair treatment for all be guaranteed for the future. Sending victims a double-slap by rewarding a figure with questions to answer with a damehood would call into question the integrity of the whole honours system.

Samuel Armstrong

Chelmsford, Essex Liam Allan London SE9