The backlog of rape and sexual offence cases in the nation’s crown courts is “totally unacceptable”, England’s chief prosecutor has said.
The new Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said tackling the wait for justice is his “highest priority” as he unveiled a new survivor support programme.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Parkinson said he is conscious of the impact of the delays: “I think it’s a huge problem.
“It affects the willingness of victims to support our cases. I’m afraid too often, defendants are taking advantage of the delays and just hoping that something will come up – in particular, that victims will withdraw.
“That’s why I think addressing delay and providing better support for victims are closely related.”
The support programme is focused on those pursuing rape and serious sexual offences cases. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has hired 40 new victim liaison officers to be the single point of contact between them and survivors.
The officers will hold pre-trial meetings with survivors in-person or online, and coordinate support for them alongside existing independent sexual violence advisers across the country.
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On average adult survivors of rape are waiting 710 days from the point of complaint to proceedings being concluded.
Spending hours sitting with people waiting for their cases to conclude over his 20-year legal career helped Mr Parkinson understand this can be “extremely stressful”.
Many people, he said “just simply cannot get on with their lives while the situation is unresolved”.
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The new scheme aims to deliver an “improved” CPS that is more “open and empathetic”. Charlotte Caulton-Scott, the head of the rape and serious sexual offences unit at the organisation, accepts that has not always been the case.
“Our role from its inception is to prosecute offences, but actually over time, through our inspections, through direct feedback from victims, we realised that all our offering in terms of support for victims, hasn’t been good enough.
“I think now, we’ve got this great opportunity to make sure that we’re supporting victims in the best possible way, that we’re communicating empathetically and that we’re making sure that we support victims through what is a long process.
“We haven’t just come up with this idea. We’ve really engaged with victims of sexual abuse to find out what they need.”
When asked if Ms Caulton-Scott accepted criticism that the support has not been good enough for survivors, she told Sky News: “Absolutely. I don’t shy away from that, nor does the CPS. It hasn’t been good enough.
“I’ve had direct feedback in the past saying, this is a faceless organisation. But actually that’s changed considerably.”
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Charities supporting survivors welcomed the move in the “right direction” but are sceptical of plans.
Raffy Elliston, a young woman’s independent sexual violence adviser from the charity Solace, told Sky News it is a welcome step but lacks depth.
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Ms Elliston said: “One of things we’re worried about is that there’s such a big backlog and, while, it’s helpful to have meetings with a point of contact – this step isn’t actually going to put much of a dent in the backlog.
“It feels maybe more often plaster over a much bigger wound. It’s good to have clarity over what’s going on, maybe why your case has been adjourned for a year.
“But what they really need is a colossal step to have specialist courts, more judges, more counsel. They need to ban adjournments, last minute adjournments that are so harmful to the people in this process, that’s the step they need to take, not just meetings with points of contact.”
The Criminal Bar Association says the backlog of criminal cases will reach 80,000 by March 2025.
