Rape victims endure three-year wait for justice

VICTIMS of rape are being forced to wait for a court verdict for more than three years on average, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) data has revealed.

The figures, broken down into local police force areas, showed that victims in Nottinghamshire faced an average wait of 1,222 days – three years and four months – from reporting the offence to a verdict in crown court.

That comprised 736 days for the police and prosecutors to conduct the investigation and bring a charge before a further 486 days on average waiting for their case to be brought to court.

The total amounted to three times that of the best-performing area, Humberside, where the delay in justice was 385 days, comprising 58 days for police and prosecutors to charge and 327 days for the case to come to court, just over one year one month.

Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner, called for taskforces to be sent into the worst-performing courts. “There should be a courts inspectorate, as there used to be, who could use this data to inspect swiftly, get to the root of the delay and drive improvement.”