PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Finally granted access to the complainant’s phone records, a defence lawyer saw that a number of her text messages to the accused when they had been in a relationship contradicted the evidence she had already given in court. Police had previously insisted that nothing in the woman’s phone history had any bearing on the case. This was untrue. It has emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) routinely withholds such data to save itself the cost of extra legal fees.The trial judge, justifiably aggrieved, lambasted both the prosecutors and the police and ordered an inquiry into the non-disclosure of evidence. The accused man, Liam Allan, even more justifiably aggrieved, said that police and prosecutors were now acting over-zealously in the matter of rape allegations to compensate for their well-documented historical failures to investigate the crime. Mr Allan’s anger is understandable. Even a modest display of detective work would have resulted in the charges being dropped at an earlier stage."
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LEADING ARTICLE: "Rape and justice: Slipshod prosecution work is a gross disservice to victims of sexual abuse.," published by The Times on December 15, 2017.
GIST: "A
serious miscarriage of justice was narrowly averted at Croydon crown
court yesterday. A young man accused of serially raping a young woman
was acquitted as the case against him collapsed. Finally granted access
to the complainant’s phone records, a defence lawyer saw that a number
of her text messages to the accused when they had been in a relationship
contradicted the evidence she had already given in court. Police had
previously insisted that nothing in the woman’s phone history had any
bearing on the case. This was untrue. It has emerged that the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) routinely withholds such data to save itself
the cost of extra legal fees. The trial judge, justifiably aggrieved, lambasted both the prosecutors and the police and ordered an
inquiry into the non-disclosure of evidence. The accused man, Liam
Allan, even more justifiably aggrieved, said that police and prosecutors
were now acting over-zealously in the matter of rape allegations to
compensate for their well-documented historical failures to investigate
the crime. Mr Allan’s anger is understandable. Even a modest display of
detective work would have resulted in the charges being dropped at an
earlier stage. Yet as a criminology student himself, Mr Allan will also
understand that the exposure of one malicious allegation must not be
allowed to create a context in which women are further deterred from
reporting rape. This
crime is notoriously difficult to prosecute successfully. Witnesses
tend to be scarce. Forensic evidence is unlikely to suggest, let alone
confirm, the presence or absence of consent. Cases all too often come
down to the word of the alleged victim against that of the alleged
perpetrator. In such circumstances, the authorities are often reluctant
to bring a prosecution and when they do, juries are often reluctant to
convict. To make matters worse, rape is enveloped in outdated,
pernicious and dangerous attitudes surrounding female sexuality. One
third of the general public — an average of four people per jury —
believe a woman to be partially complicit if she has previously been
flirting with her attacker. Similar views regarding a victim wearing
revealing clothes, or being drunk or being deemed to have not resisted
forcefully enough, are equally widespread. Until recently, many police
forces were failing to respond to reports of rape with due seriousness
or even with a modicum of human sympathy. To the constabulary’s
credit, that accusation is now less justified than it was even five
years ago. Since then a marked improvement in police protocols has led
to a sharp rise in the number of reported rapes, which increased by 22
per cent in the year to June 2017. The result of this, however, is that
while the overall number of convictions has risen, the conviction rate
as a percentage of recorded allegations has fallen, from 15 per cent in
2011-12 to 7.5 per cent in 2015-16. Criminologists
estimate that five out of six rapes still go unreported. If only 7.5
per cent of the reported rapes result in a conviction, that means that
for every 1,000 rapes, a paltry 13 rapists receive punishment and a
pathetic 13 victims receive justice. Combating this travesty requires
the CPS and police to do more than merely throw mud to see what might
stick. They must redouble their efforts to collect and preserve the
evidence and follow that. Suppressing it is inimical to justice."
The entire leading article can be found at:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rape-and-justice-jw87sp38g
