Prosecutors are refusing to take difficult rape cases to court, says Victims Commissioner
Prosecutors are letting rapists walk free by refusing to take difficult cases to court, says Victims Commissioner as she brands rape ‘terrorism against women’
Victims Commissioner says the CPS is not doing enough to prosecute rape casesDame Vera Baird QC says harder cases are shunned to keep conviction rates upShe described rape as ‘domestic terrorism’ with prosecutions down to just 1.6% A CPS spokesman said: ‘It is entirely untrue to claim we drop difficult rape cases’
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
The Victims Commissioner for England and Wales says that rapists are being allowed to walk our streets because prosecutors are shunning difficult cases in court.
Dame Vera Baird QC, who practised as a prosecuting barrister for decades, says that victims are currently being failed by the Crown Prosecution Service.
She described rape as ‘domestic terrorism’ against women and said the CPS should not be judged on conviction rates as it means they only want to take ‘rock solid cases’.
Prosecutions for rape dropped to just 1.6 per cent last year, their lowest in history – The Sun reports.
Dame Vera said: ‘They made a decision… to take fewer of what they called weaker cases in order to increase their conviction rate.
‘Historically the CPS have been judged on their conviction rates. They should not be judged in that way.
Dame Vera Baird QC says rapists are being allowed to walk free as the CPS is shunning harder cases to prosecute in court, a claim which it dismisses as ‘entirely untrue’
‘They should not set themselves out to win that competition if the cost is prosecuting half as many rapes as they did.
‘Many people are starting to see this and say – does the conviction rate matter? What matters is getting rapists off the street.
‘The CPS are very much responsible for that. They have not reversed that decision.
‘Ministers should classify it as a strategic policing priority – like terrorism and knife crime – a move which would unlock desperately needed cash and attention, she said.
‘It is domestic terrorism – it is domestic abuse. A campaign of rape is also terrorism against women.’
There was a sharp rise of 61,158 rapes recorded in the first year of lockdown up to June 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Rape cases soared to a new record last year in England and Wales – believed to have been exacerbated by lockdown, while the number of reported sex offences hit the second-highest level ever, figures revealed last month.
A CPS spokesman said: ‘It is entirely untrue to claim we drop difficult rape cases.
‘We will never hesitate to prosecute a case when our legal test is met, no matter how challenging, and are determined to see more cases going to court.’
