The continuing problems with rape prosecutions in London highlighted today in a report by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate are deeply disappointing and give little optimism for the prospects of any rapid immediate improvement in the disastrously low proportion of offenders currently being brought to justice.
Many of the problems exposed are familiar, particularly over the handling of mobile phone and other digital data, and the often inadequate quality of files sent to the CPS by the Met.
In concert with a shortfall in the number of specialist rape prosecutors, these inevitably make the job much harder and can undermine cases almost from the start. It is not good enough, and long-promised improvements must be delivered when national figures show that only 1.3 per cent of rapes reported to police end with a charge.
But it is not only prosecutors and police who must do better. The impact of the trial backlog that government underfunding of the courts and legal profession had created, even before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, makes it harder to keep cases successfully on track, particularly for traumatic crimes such as rape.
That means ministers — whose earlier slashing of CPS budgets hasn’t helped, either — must now deliver far more investment to clear the backlog. Victims deserve better and rapists must no longer be allowed to escape because of failings in the system.
