FURY AT RAPE RULING

CAMPAIGNERS ACCUSE COURT OF BETRAYING VICTIMS BY BACKING POLICY THAT ‘LETS OFFENDERS OFF HOOK’

TOP judges have been accused of betraying rape victims by backing a ‘bookmaker’s approach’ to deciding which cases to prosecute.

Campaigners criticised the Court of Appeal for defending a policy that they blame for a ‘shocking decline’ in the number of alleged sex attackers being charged and put on trial.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition (Evaw) had claimed a switch away from a ‘merits-based’ approach, made in 2018, was unlawful.

But the court found that, although the phrase ‘merits-based’ had been taken out of official guidance, this was ‘not a change of legal substance’.

EVAW’s director Andrea Simon said afterwards: ‘This marks another establishment betrayal of victims of violence against women and girls.’

Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: ‘Rapists that might otherwise have been convicted are walking free and there is a growing perception that rape has been decriminalised.’ More than ,000 rapes were reported to police in 2019/20 but fewer than 2,000 alleged offenders were prosecuted.

Evaw’s lawyers accused the Crown Prosecution Service of only pursuing cases it felt were a good bet, based on the outcomes of previous trials.

But the CPS said taking ‘meritsbased’ out of guidance had made no ‘substantial change’ to its decisions.

And appeal court judge Lord Chief Justice Burnett said: ‘We reject the submission that the decision created any risk of systemic illegality.’

Ms Simon said Evaw now faced a £7 ,000 fee for legal costs – but she hoped the CPS would waive this so the money could be used by women’s groups to help rape victims.

Labour MP Ellie Reeves, the shadow solicitor general, said: ‘This is a disappointing result which endorses what is effectively decriminalisation of rape. Rape prosecution rates are at their lowest level on record in England and Wales, victims of rape are waiting years for their court date and only one in seven victims have faith in the criminal justice system.’

But director of public prosecutions Max Hill said: ‘Today’s outcome means we can now give our full focus to the extensive work under way to address the gap between reported rapes and cases going to court.’