Last week’s anniversary of the murder of Sarah Everard was a reminder of everything that has gone wrong in the criminal justice system when it comes to violence against women committed by men. The way that this case and the killing of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were handled by the Metropolitan police was a key reason why Dame Cressida Dick was forced out of her job as its chief. Whoever replaces her in the UK’s highest-profile policing job must know that confidence in the police’s approach to female victims of sexual and violent crimes has fallen very low.
A review of the way that police dealt with several earlier reports about Wayne Couzens exposing himself is ongoing. The home secretary, Priti Patel, has announced that tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is to become a strategic policing requirement, on an equivalent footing with terrorism, organised crime and child sexual abuse. She has also launched a campaign aimed at highlighting the scale of the problem, and encouraging men to change their behaviour. Maggie Blyth, the police’s national lead on VAWG, has admitted that one problem is the attraction policing can hold for men who seek opportunities to exert power over women. With this in mind, it is a relief that efforts are now being made to recruit more women.
But the proof will be in the pudding. Cuts to budgets lie behind many of the present problems as Sarah Crew, the national police lead on rape (a separate role from Maggie Blyth’s), admitted last year. The disbanding of dedicated teams set up to investigate rapes in various forces had led, she said, to complex crimes including copious digital evidence being handled by a “very inexperienced workforce”.
These damaging changes are now in the process of being reversed. Expanding the role of specialist units within the Crown Prosecution Service, and improving joint working with the police, are two strands of the CPS’s five-year plan to prosecute more rapes. More support for victims is also promised. All these initiatives will require sustained funding and training.
Last year the court of appeal ruled against a group of women’s charities in a case that sought to link the declining number of prosecutions with changes to CPS guidance, which emphasised the importance of securing convictions. Low conviction rates have long been a source of concern to campaigners as well as to prosecutors. But the collapse in the number of reports leading to a trial is even more alarming, and likened by the victims’ commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, to the “decriminalisation of rape”. The number of prosecutions fell 60% in the four years to 2019/20 – a period during which the number of rapes reported almost doubled.
Investigating these cases is difficult. Combing through digital evidence such as phone records is resource-intensive. But a situation in which violent men feel able to commit sexual offences with impunity, as Wayne Couzens did, is intolerable and dangerous. Women must be able to trust that their reports will be dealt with seriously and promptly, by police officers and lawyers with relevant expertise. On International Women’s Day, ministers should pledge that this will happen.
