Women’s groups call for action over rape convictions
WOMEN’S GROUPS have lobbied the Justice Secretary to investigate the Crown Prosecution Service’s approach to dealing with rape allegations amid serious concerns over a decline in cases getting to court.
The End Violence Against Women coalition, represented by the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), has presented Robert Buckland with a dossier of evidence, including a statement from a CPS whistleblower critical of his employer, in an effort to encourage a shake-up of the current system.
The coalition argues that socalled “weaker” rape cases have been weeded out in favour of complaints with a greater chance of conviction.
It follows a report last year which found rape prosecutions in England and Wales had fallen to their lowest level since 2008, despite record numbers of allegations coming to the attention of police, with around 3.3 per cent of all reported rapes ending in a conviction.
The coalition’s co-director Sarah Green said: “The whistleblower’s statement, the interviews with case studies and other supporting documents show the prosecution of rape in this country is disastrous.
“We need much higher level political leadership to effect change and get a chance of justice for all complainants of rape, not just ones hand-selected by police and prosecutors because of their anticipation of courtroom prejudices.”
One senior member of CPS staff, who asked not to be identified through fear of reprisals, said the CPS secretly chose to change its policy on charging rape cases.
He said: “Over the last three years there has been a dramatic change in the messaging delivered to prosecutors via both faceto-face training and legal guidance in the area of RASSO (rape and serious sexual offence) prosecutions, which has promoted the belief that the ‘merits-based approach’ no longer has relevance to the application of the Full Code Test and has thereby discouraged prosecutors from charging the more evidentially challenging but Code-compliant RASSO cases, which experience as prosecutors tells us are less likely to find favour with a jury.”