Police act to boost rape prosecutions
POLICE will focus on the backgrounds of rape suspects to put more sex attackers behind bars, Home Secretary Priti Patel says today.
Detectives are being told to end the “obsessive focus on the credibility of the victim” amid fears tens of thousands of women are withdrawing support for rape investigations.
Two of England’s biggest forces, the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police, are among those that will follow Avon and Somerset’s approach of honing in on the behaviour of suspects.
Officers will spend more time examining who the suspects are, where they have been and when, and what they have done previously. Research revealed one in four alleged rapists had been named as a suspect in another sex assault case, prompting fears many are repeat offenders.
Now league tables will be compiled on the way police and the Crown Prosecution Service handle cases.
There will be “greater external scrutiny” of decisions. No victim will be left without a phone, needed for the investigation, for more than 24 hours.
Ministers on Thursday told of their shame at plummeting rape prosecutions and apologised to victims.
A swathe of measures will be introduced in a bid to restore the number of allegations ending up in a trial to levels that existed in 2016. A scathing review concluded “victims feel let down at every stage”. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) vowed to implement any recommendations that would provide a better service.
Ms Patel and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the Daily Express: “At the heart of the review is a change around the culture of rape and sexual assault in the criminal justice system, to stop victims feeling like they are the one being scrutinised.
“These changes will finally restore the confidence in justice that has sadly disappeared in recent years.”
Just 1,439 suspects were convicted of rape in England and Wales last year – the lowest total ever and down from 1,925 in 2019. Over the same period, 59,747 rapes were recorded.
Around 13 per cent of reported cases in 2015-’16 ended in a suspect being charged, dropping to just 1.5 per cent in 2019-’20.
Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Crew, of the NPCC, said: “Police officers join to take dangerous people off the streets and get victims the justice they deserve but, in the case of rape, that has not happened enough.”
THE failure to secure justice for rape victims is a scandal the country can tolerate no longer. It is shameful that only 1,439 suspects were convicted of rape in England and Wales last year. This the lowest number since records began.
Home Secretary Priti Patel and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland are right to promise a raft of reforms but radical improvements are required in supporting victims and putting rapists behind bars.
There is huge sympathy for all those who have suffered this heinous crime and they deserve confidence that perpetrators will be taken off the streets.