Review announced into handling of rape cases
The Met and the Crown Prosecution Service have announced a major review into the handling of rape cases in the wake of the first increase in acquittal rates for at least six years.
The former Scottish solicitor advocate Dame Elisha Angiolini is to carry out the six month review which will look at performance, procedures, staffing levels, workloads, and victim feedback.
It will examine 80 sample cases for such issues as attitude and bias among officers and prosecutors, and the level of support given to victims.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, said: “We have worked hard in recent years to improve our performance in rape cases and the improvements have been dramatic. But we still find ourselves fighting the same myths and stereotypes today, conscious or unconscious, that we identified decades ago.”
The UK’s largest police force has had a chequered history of sexual crimes investigations. In January judges ruled it had breached victims’ human rights over its failure to properly investigate the country’s most prolific serial rapist, black cab driver John Worboys, and the delay in his capture and conviction.
It was also heavily criticised by a committee of MPs after a whistleblower revealed the under-recording rape and serious sexual offences by between 22 per cent and 25 per cent, with officers “no criming” allegations because of the vulnerability of the victims.
The Met say that practice has been virtually eliminated down from 800 cases to less than a handful. The Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe says it’s time for radical change given 80 per cent of victims of sexual crime do not come forward.
CPS figures show
Nationally in 2012-13 in 2013-14
Total prosecuted 3692 3891
Convictions 2333 (63.2 per cent) 2348(60.3 per cent)
In London 2012-13
Total prosecuted 667 730
Convictions 367 (55 per cent) 381 (52.2 per cent)
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