Rape accused to have sexual history used as evidence

MEN accused of rape should have their sexual history used against them in court, the Director of Public Prosecutions said.

Defendants could face evidence about ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’ in their past relationships and jurors may even be shown their social media postings, Alison Saunders revealed.

Mrs Saunders, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, suggested juries should hear from witnesses who have suffered at the hands of rape suspects long before the alleged attack, and added that they should reach verdicts ‘in a way that doesn’t just look at the individual incident’. She indicated that police will in future trawl through social media posts and CCTV to gather information.

It comes as a scheme set to be piloted in Liverpool, Leeds and Kingston crown courts this autumn will allow women who have made rape allegations to video record their evidence in advance of the trial.

Mrs Saunders’ views are likely to form the basis of new guidance to prosecutors on how to handle future cases.

But Zoe Gascoyne, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: ‘The DPP does not have the right to change the law on a whim. Evidence of past behaviour can already be used on the authority of a judge, and there are rigorous procedures in place. This is not something that needs to be changed.’

Former criminal barrister and Conservative Woman website editor Laura Perrins said the plan will mean ‘a trawling exercise to gather irrelevant material to muddy the waters against a defendant’. She accused Mrs Saunders of using her position ‘as part of a feminist crusade’.

‘A trawling exercise’