Latest news with #victimsrights
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Rape victims can challenge dropped cases after sexsomnia fiasco
Victims of rape and serious sexual assaults will get the right to challenge prosecutors' decisions to drop their cases. Labour is to pilot a scheme in which rape victims can secure an independent review if prosecutors are planning to abandon their case because they believe there is insufficient evidence. Under the current system, criminal cases can be stopped at any point if a prosecutor decides there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction. Under changes announced on Thursday, victims of rape or serious sexual abuse will be offered the right for a different independent prosecutor to review the evidence before any final decisions are made. If that prosecutor determines there is enough evidence, the case will continue. The move follows a campaign by Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott, 32, after her rape case was dropped amid claims that she could have had an episode of 'sexsomnia'. An 'important first step' Ms McCrossen-Nethercott received £35,000 in compensation and an apology from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for its decision to drop the case before the evidence had been tested in court. She contacted police in 2017 because she thought she had been raped while asleep. She said she had woken up half-naked, finding her necklace broken on the floor. But charges were dropped by the CPS days before a trial was scheduled to begin after lawyers for the alleged perpetrator claimed Ms McCrossen-Nethercott had sexsomnia – a medically recognised, but rare, sleep disorder that causes a person to engage in sexual acts while asleep. She welcomed the pilot scheme to be run in the West Midlands as an 'important first step'. 'It can't undo the harm already done to victims like me, but it's real, tangible progress, and I hope it marks the beginning of a fairer system, one where victims' voices are not just heard, but acted on,' said Ms McCrossen-Nethercott. Victims already have the right to challenge a decision not to charge suspects once it has been taken, but the pilot scheme will extend that right to before prosecutors decide to drop a case. 'Make Britain's streets safer' Lucy Rigby, Labour MP and Solicitor General, wrote in an article for The Telegraph: 'The existing scheme is already an important tool in delivering justice, but this new commitment from the CPS will extend that right, so that victims are further empowered to question decisions made in their cases, resulting in fewer cases falling through the cracks and more offenders brought to justice. 'Beginning on Friday, the pilot will become operational in the West Midlands. If it is a success, we will look to extend this across the country to support all victims of rape and serious sexual assaults. 'We know there is much to do to fix the justice system. But this is a vital step towards building the system that victims deserve and ultimately make Britain's streets safer.' Just one in 40 (2.6 per cent) rape offences resulted in a charge in the year ending March 2024, up from 2.1 per cent in the previous year, but a fraction of the 12 per cent charge rate in 2014. Labour has committed to halving violence against women and girls and will publish its strategy on how to achieve that this summer. The plan has inherited a series of initiatives by the last government and police, including an overhaul to focus investigations on perpetrators rather than testing the credibility of victims. Police chiefs have pledged to apply the same investigative and disruptive tactics to rapists as they do to organised crime bosses, where they are pursued by police even if victims withdraw their complaints. We can't leave victims to go on suffering Our broken criminal justice system is in dire need of repair, which is why our pilot scheme aims to empower victims of rape and sexual assault to question decisions made in their cases, writes Lucy Rigby KC MP. Too often, victims of violence against women and girls are let down by our criminal justice system, compounding what is already a traumatic experience. I have strong views on the reasons why. Chief among them: 14 years of governments whose approach was nothing short of negligent. This resulted in too few bobbies on the beat, overflowing prisons and a record backlog in our courts, leaving victims of very serious crimes waiting years to see perpetrators in court. In short, a broken criminal justice system in desperate need of repair. The impact on victims and public trust in the justice system was significant. A creaking criminal justice system undermines one of the basic principles fundamental to our democracy: the rule of law. That is to say the law applies to everyone equally and all must have access to justice. This happened despite the work of thousands of dedicated public servants to protect us all. I've met many of them – including the prosecutors from across the country that dedicate their careers to sifting through evidence, often in harrowing crimes, to build a case and pursue justice on behalf of victims. Empowering rape victims This Government has begun the difficult task of fixing our criminal justice system as part of the Plan for Change, in which we pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. To achieve this, we are putting domestic abuse specialists into 999 control rooms, introducing new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, doing more to effectively tackle spiking, stalking and coercive behaviour. That means better support in place for victims and giving them the confidence that specialists are helping them. These changes will also see more police on our streets, locking up abusers, but importantly – getting quicker justice and support for those suffering at the hands of perpetrators of these horrific crimes. As Solicitor General, I've heard heart-wrenching accounts of women's experience of the criminal justice system – sometimes lasting years – which have seriously impacted their mental health, wellbeing and relationships. We cannot let this go on, which is why we are ensuring that adult victims of rape and serious sexual offences will have access to a dedicated victim liaison officer, as well as pre-trial meetings, so that they feel more prepared for court. The right to question But we have to do more. In particular, it is vital that our criminal justice system further empowers victims to best navigate it. It was Prime Minister Keir Starmer who, as the director of public prosecutions, launched the Victims' Right to Review Scheme in 2013, to give victims and bereaved families the right to challenge decisions not to charge suspects or drop cases. Leading victims' rights voices, like Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott, the Centre for Women's Justice, Dame Vera Baird and Claire Waxman OBE, the Victims' Commissioner, have recognised the success of this scheme and that is why we are extending it to better support more victims. A new pilot launched this week will give survivors of rape and serious sexual assault the right to have their case reviewed before CPS makes any final decisions. Currently, criminal cases can be stopped at any point if a prosecutor decides there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction. For the first time, survivors of rape or serious sexual abuse will be offered the right to request a review by a different prosecutor before their case is dropped. Where a review finds that the initial decision was wrong, the case against the accused will continue. A system victims deserve The existing scheme is already an important tool in delivering justice, but this new commitment from the CPS will extend that right, so that victims are further empowered to question decisions made in their cases, resulting in fewer cases falling through the cracks and more offenders brought to justice. Beginning on Friday, the pilot will become operational in the West Midlands. If it is a success, we will look to extend this across the country to support all victims of rape and serious sexual assaults. We know there is much to do to fix the justice system. But this is a vital step towards building the system that victims deserve and ultimately make Britain's streets safer.
The Independent
15 hours ago
- The Independent
Victims of rape can challenge CPS if case dropped under new review scheme
Rape and sexual assault victims who have their criminal cases dropped can now request for their cases to be reviewed as part of a pilot scheme. Launching on Friday in the West Midlands, the six-month trial will give victims the right to request that their case be reviewed by a different prosecutor, as part of reforms under Labour's pledge to halve violence against women and girls. The changes come after a woman successfully sued the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after her rape case was dropped on the eve of her trial, after the defence suggested she was suffering from the rare condition 'sexsomnia'. Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott said she was 'profoundly failed and let down' when her case was dropped, and described the new review scheme as a 'crucial safeguard'. She had contacted police in 2017 after waking up and feeling she had been raped while she slept. But the charges were dropped days before the trial three years later, because lawyers for the accused claimed Ms McCrossen-Nethercott had 'sexsomnia', a medically recognised but rare sleep disorder which causes a person to engage in sexual acts while asleep. The CPS later admitted it was wrong to close the case, saying it should have been taken to trial, and last year apologised and agreed to pay her £35,000 in damages. Ms McCrossen-Nethercott said she was 'hugely excited' about the new pilot, saying: '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.' While current procedures allow rape and serious sexual assault victims to request their cases are reviewed, if that case has already been stopped in court by prosecutors it cannot be re-started no matter the outcome of the review. 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. "This pilot offers greater reassurance for victims. It means that they will be alerted to the prospect of their case being stopped earlier, so that they can ask for a review by a different prosecutor. If the original decision is reversed, then the case will continue, but even if it can't, we hope that victims will have more confidence in the process and the earlier scrutiny of our decision-making. "Rape cases are incredibly complex and sensitive. We have specially trained prosecutors who do an excellent job building strong cases. This pilot offers an earlier check and balance, which provides extra reassurance for victims."
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Rape victims can challenge CPS if cases dropped under pilot scheme
Victims of rape and serious sexual assault who face their cases being dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service will be given the right to request a review under a government pilot. The six-month scheme, which will launch on Friday in the West Midlands, will give victims the right to ask for their case to be reviewed by a different prosecutor if the CPS indicates it intends to offer no evidence. The reform is backed by the attorney general and solicitor general and forms part of the government's pledge to halve violence against women and girls. Campaigners have long called for the change. Criminal cases can be stopped at any point if a prosecutor decides there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction, but this reform strengthens the right of victims to challenge the decision. Though a right to review already exists, it cannot be exercised when the case has been stopped in court. Under the terms of the pilot, for the first time victims of rape or serious sexual abuse will be offered the right to request a review by a different prosecutor before their case is dropped. If that prosecutor determines there is enough evidence, the case will continue. If the trial is successful in the West Midlands, ministers could extend it across England and Wales. Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott, a justice reform campaigner who won compensation from the CPS after her rape case was dropped amid claims she could have had an episode of 'sexsomnia', said the pilot was 'a hugely important step in the right direction'. 'After my own case was closed due to a controversial 'sexsomnia' defence, I used the victims' right to review – only to be told that, despite the CPS admitting a mistake, it was too late to reopen the case because they'd already offered no evidence in court. That experience was devastating,' she said. 'I've spent nearly three years campaigning behind the scenes for this exact change: for victims to have the opportunity to request a second review before a case is shut down.' She added that, despite its failure in her case, the CPS had shown a willingness to reflect and change and that her 'faith in the agencies that once failed me is slowly being restored'. 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's backlog. The number of sexual offences waiting to go to the crown court was 11,981, up by 41% in two years. There were 3,489 adult rape cases waiting to go to trial, an increase of 70% in two years. According to figures published by Rape Crisis, fewer than three in 100 rapes recorded by police in 2024 resulted in someone being charged that same year. Adult rape cases take an average of two years to complete in court, with many taking far longer. The pilot was welcomed by the End Violence Against Women Coalition and Centre for Women's Justice. Helen Newlove, the victims' commissioner for England and Wales, said it was 'a first step toward ending a manifestly unfair practice that denied victims a voice and robbed them of justice'. Lucy Rigby, the solicitor general, 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. 'This pilot offers greater reassurance for victims. It means that they will be alerted to the prospect of their case being stopped earlier, so that they can ask for a review by a different prosecutor. If the original decision is reversed, then the case will continue but even if it can't we hope that victims will have more confidence in the process and the earlier scrutiny of our decision-making.'
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
What Quebec's new law on the sharing of intimate photos without consent does
With a new law coming into force that imposes heavier penalties and provides new tools for victims, Quebec becomes the second province to enact intimate image sharing legislation.
Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Times
I won longer sentences for killers. This is what I want next
Carole Gould has recurring nightmares about walking past her daughter's killer on the street. The family live in the home in Calne, Wiltshire, where in May 2019 Gould's husband, Matt, returned from work to discover Ellie, 17, lying on the kitchen floor with 13 stab wounds to her neck and face. She had been killed by her first boyfriend, Thomas Griffiths, who was 17 and seven months old when he bunked off school, travelled to her house and attacked her with one of the family's steak knives the day after she ended their relationship. Griffiths has served about six years of his 12½-year sentence, but Gould understands he could be eligible for transfer to an open prison and weekend visits to the family home in about three years' time. Their home is two miles from where Griffiths' parents live. 'Can you imagine how traumatic it would be for us and Ellie's friends to see him walking around here?' Gould said. 'This is one of many things we want to fight — the idea he could be having weekends at home at taxpayers' expense.' In the space of six years Gould, 55, a part-time estate agent, has campaigned tirelessly and won several victories to secure greater justice for the families of girls and women killed by ex-boyfriends after a break-up. Despite a number of successes, for which she was made an OBE this year, there is still much to do. 'I've felt like I have to be Ellie's voice because she did believe in justice and what was right and wrong,' Gould said. 'I wonder what she'd be saying if she could shout down to us. I'm sure she'd be so angry he took her life away when she had so much to live for. I'm sure she would be proud, but I'd give it all up in a heartbeat to have her back.' Because of Gould's campaign, sentencing guidelines changed in 2021 so teenage killers are treated almost as adults. 'Ellie's Law' meant Axel Rudakubana, 17, who killed three girls in Southport last year, started at a minimum of 27 years as opposed to 12. He was jailed for a total of 52 years. Working with other bereaved mothers such as Julie Devey — whose daughter Poppy, 24, was stabbed in her student flat by an ex-boyfriend in 2018 — Gould successfully campaigned for judges to consider aggravating factors such as where disproportionate force was used to murder, and recognise the impact of coercive behaviour. Now, a week after the government published its sentencing review by the Tory former justice secretary David Gauke, Gould has thoughts on how the justice system needs to change to give a sense of real justice to families who have lost young women to violence by men. She is calling for: • The minimum tariff for murder on the street and the home to be equalised at 25 years. • The introduction of restricted zones that contain offenders' movements to a small area, including preventing them from entering an area where their victim's family lives once they are released from prison. She wants to see restricted zones in place for life. • Greater availability and use of blunt knives in homes and across the country. Goal No 1 is to reform domestic homicide sentencing, increasing the minimum sentence for murder in the home from 15 to 25 years, in line with the minimum tariff for murder on the street where a weapon is taken to the scene. 'What grieved me so much with Ellie's case is the idea that if a youth over 18 goes out with a knife in a town and stabs someone, he would straight away get 25 years as a starting point,' Gould said. 'But when it comes to violence in the home, which is more often against women, it's just not taken as seriously.' She is also supporting the Let's Be Blunt campaign encouraging people to choose round-tipped kitchen knives. It was started by Leanne Lucas, the dance teacher who was critically injured as she protected children targeted by Rudakubana in Southport. Three quarters of all domestic homicides involve a kitchen knife, according to the Office for National Statistics. 'He'll be petrified in prison' In the independent sentencing review, Gauke said the prison capacity crisis 'requires us to set out proposals in which some people who currently receive custodial sentences are, instead, punished in the community and that some of those who still receive custodial sentences spend less time in prison than was previously the case'. Gould warned that current methods for assessing parole could be inadequate if specialist advisers on domestic abuse and gender-based violence are not used. 'My grievance with Gauke's review is that they're basing parole on good behaviour in prison,' she said. 'Somebody like Griffiths will be petrified in prison because he's a middle-class boy among gang members — obviously he's going to be behaving. How can you say whether he's going to be a danger to women when he gets out? There ought to be a domestic abuse adviser on the parole board for a case like his.' Through her Killed Women network, Gould repeatedly hears about women whose attackers have been released from prison and committed further violence. She referred to the case of Mark Keel, 33, who was jailed for 22 years last week for killing his partner, Maxine Clark, at her Glasgow home. Clark, 36, a mother of four, had previously been attacked by Keel, who had been jailed for domestic violence in 2022 and has abuse convictions from three previous relationships. Years of campaigning Gould has been fighting the justice system almost since the day six years ago when she left Ellie at home to be picked up by a friend for school. The hard-working, vivacious and popular girl had ended her relationship with Griffiths, a quiet prefect at her school, the night before. She was weeks away from the results for her first year of A-levels and an extended project entitled: 'Should child murderers be punished?' CCTV showed Griffiths was dropped at school by his mother that morning. He waited until she drove away before getting a bus home and changing into black shoes and clothing. After the murder he began a cover-up. He gave the bloodied clothes he was wearing to his mother to wash and dumped kitchen towels used to mop Ellie's blood in a nearby wood. He texted friends that scratches on his neck, the product of Ellie trying to defend herself, were self-harm because he was depressed about family illnesses. • Why abusive partners who kill at home get off lightly The judge considered Griffiths's violation of the home as a place of safety and his attempted cover-up as aggravating factors which would increase his sentence from a minimum of 12 years. However, mitigating factors lowered the sentence to 12½ years. These included his age, the fact that he had pleaded guilty three months after his arrest, a letter demonstrating remorse he sent to the judge, and that he did not bring a weapon to the scene. Encounters with killer's parents In the wake of the Netflix series Adolescence, which the Goulds watched together, parents and teachers across the country have been having conversations about toxic masculinity, incel (involuntary celibate) culture and the rise of misogynistic influencers such as Andrew Tate. 'I often wonder with Griffiths whether he did this because he was always on the internet,' Gould said. She was told by a friend of Ellie that he was insecure about his masculinity, once storming out of a gym after she asked a different boy to get a weight down from a high shelf for her. Schools ought to be having more conversations with teenagers about healthy relationships, she said, spotting controlling behaviour and reassuring young boys so they did not believe the world was against them. Gould also wants restricted zones — ensuring that high-risk former prisoners are only able to live, work and travel in specific ares of the UK — in place for the rest of ex-prisoners' lives. Otherwise, she says, his presence in their home town would turn it into a 'prison'. She gave an example of Julie Butcher's family, who live in nearby Swindon. Butcher's killer husband said that after his 13-year sentence he wanted to return home there — to the same area where her sister Emma lived. Staying in the area has meant that the Goulds have seen the Griffiths family a couple of times. On the first anniversary of Ellie's death, Carole Gould confronted his parents, she said. 'They said that their lives had been destroyed, which I get. But I said to her, mother to mother, all I've got left of my precious daughter is a box of ashes and a lock of hair because of the monstrous act of your son.' '[Ellie] should have gone to university, probably to study psychology. She should have passed her driving test. She could have gone travelling. She could now be starting out in her career as a police woman, which she was considering. You mourn your loss going forward: we'll never see her get married, we'll never see her have children. This is why 12½ years is just not long enough to reflect the damage it's done to us.' The Ministry of Justice said a review of homicide law would be conducted by the independent Law Commission. 'We are already working at pace to introduce statutory aggravating factors for murders involving strangulation and relationship breakdowns,' a spokesman said. 'We are also looking at options on knives and will be meeting manufacturers and retailers to discuss increasing sales of rounded-tipped knives shortly.'
