3 days ago
Thousands of criminal cases collapsing every year
Thousands of criminal cases, including murders and rapes, are collapsing every year because of lost, damaged or missing evidence.
More than 30,000 prosecutions in England and Wales collapsed between October 2020 and September last year, according to data from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
Some 70 homicides and more than 550 sexual offences were among the cases that the CPS ruled could not proceed because prosecutors did not have the necessary evidence to secure a conviction.
They are recorded as E72 cases, which collapse because physical or digital evidence such as forensics and body camera footage has been lost, damaged or contaminated during storage. They can also include witness statements or pathology reports not being made available by police or key evidence not gathered from the crime scene.
The reasons why cases have collapsed are not included in the data, obtained by the BBC. However the figures do suggest the number of cases that are recorded as an E72 is increasing, with a higher proportion of prosecutions failing to result in a conviction because of lost or missing evidence each year.
In 2020, a total of 7,484 prosecutions collapsed because of lost, missing or damaged evidence. Last year, that had risen by nine per cent to 8,180.
Former police officers told the BBC they were not surprised by the findings. 'It's [evidence] chucked all over the place,' one officer said. Another said: 'The amount of it is overwhelming … it's unsurprising it gets lost or damaged.'
Prof Carole McCartney, a criminologist and expert in evidence retention, said the loss of the dedicated Forensic Science Service (FSS) in 2012 was one of the reasons behind the growing proportion of cases affected by unavailable evidence.
Before 2012, all police forces could send exhibits that needed storing or analysing to the FSS, but the government-owned company was closed that year after making large losses. Since then, police forces have had to make their own arrangements to store evidence and contract private providers for forensic services.
Prof McCartney said she had witnessed an officer pull out what he called a 'box of horrors' from underneath a desk, which contained various pieces of uncatalogued evidence including a plastic bag with a broken wine bottle in it and a car number-plate.
All items held by the FSS from before 2012 were moved to a different facility, the National Forensics Archive, just outside Birmingham, that year, but that archive is for unsolved cases only and does not accept new items.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said police and the CPS worked together to ensure evidence was 'gathered and presented in a timely manner, bringing offenders to justice and ensuring victims are safeguarded'.
It said the data obtained by the BBC referred to all evidence that was either missing or unavailable when a defendant was going to trial after being charged. This could include situations where police cannot find an expert witness or may not be able to obtain a required medical statement.
The NPCC said: 'When evidential issues occur in a case, the CPS will raise this with police for any action deemed necessary and we will work together to ensure these are resolved wherever possible.'
The results of a consultation by the Law Commission, which proposed re-establishing a national forensic service and making the mishandling of evidence a criminal offence in some circumstances, are set to go before Parliament next week.
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