4 days ago
Rape victims who face having their court cases dropped to be given the right to demand a review by a fresh prosecutor
Rape victims will have the chance to challenge a prosecutor's decision to drop their court case for the first time under a new pilot.
Victims in rape and serious sexual assault trials will now be able to ask for a different prosecutor to review their case if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) intends to offer no evidence against the accused.
The six-month pilot, which will launch on Friday in the West Midlands, effectively gives victims the chance to re-activate cases preventing suspects from walking free if a new prosecutor believes there is enough evidence for the trial to continue.
Today, Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Helen Newlove hailed the pilot as 'a first step toward ending a manifestly unfair practice that denied victims a voice and robbed them of justice'.
A victim's right to review a case already exists for all criminal cases, but perversely it only applies before the trial starts and cannot be used when the case has been discontinued at court.
Campaigners have long demanded a change after a series of cases where it later emerged that the CPS had made an mistake but victims were powerless to reopen proceedings because the case had already been dropped mid-trial, letting the suspect free.
If the scheme is successful in the West Midlands, ministers could extend it across England and Wales.
The reform, backed by the attorney general and solicitor general, forms part of the government's pledge to halve violence against women and girls.
It has been welcomed by Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott, who has campaigned for changes after her rape case was dropped on the basis that she could have unknowingly had sex while asleep due to a rare sleep disorder called sexsomnia.
The 33-year-old told police in 2017 that she believed she had been raped while asleep on a sofa after waking up half-naked, finding her necklace broken on the floor.
The CPS later apologised for dropping her case paying £35,000 in compensation after conceding it should have gone to trial.
Today she said: 'I'm hugely excited about what this pilot could mean for victims, and I hope it proves successful enough to be rolled out across the country. This pilot is a crucial safeguard – one that could have completely changed the outcome in my case, and so many others like it.
'I was profoundly failed and let down by how my case was handled, but I've since seen people within the CPS who are genuinely working to make it better.'
Ministers hope the change will help build trust in the justice system, which has been eroded by lengthy waiting times.
In latest quarterly crime data released by the Ministry of Justice running to December 2024, rape and sexual offences had reached a record high in the crown court backlog.
The number of sexual offences waiting to go to the crown court was 11,981, up by 41 per cent in two years.
There are 3,489 adult rape cases waiting to go to trial, an increase of 70 per cent in two years.
Solicitor General Lucy Rigby said: 'This government is treating violence against women and girls with the seriousness it deserves. Part of that is about empowering victims and improving their experience of the criminal justice system.'
Siobhan Blake, CPS lead for rape and chief crown prosecutor of CPS West Midlands, said: 'We know for rape victims, the prospect of their case being stopped can be absolutely devastating.
'Although they can request a review of our decision-making now, if we have already stopped the case in court, there is nothing that can be done to reactivate the case if that review comes to a different conclusion.
'In those circumstances we offer an apology, but appreciate that for a victim an apology rarely goes far enough or feels like a just outcome.'
