Sexual offence victims face longest-ever court waits

Crime / Mon 25th Apr 2022 at 12:53pm

SERIOUS sexual offences are taking the longest time on record to go through Crown Courts in England and Wales.

Exclusive data compiled by the BBC found such cases averaged nine months to complete in 2021, with differences depending on where you live.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said delays were caused by the pandemic but barristers blame funding cuts.

Some victims have said they would consider not reporting such crimes due to their experiences of delays.

Lisa, not her real name, was raped by someone she knew in 2017, but it took until late summer 2021 for her attacker to be convicted and jailed.

“I don’t even have the words to explain how awful it has been,” she said.

Despite seeing justice, she said she had been left with no confidence in the system.

“God forbid it ever happened again, or to any of my family, but I wouldn’t promote going through the system and even reporting a crime of this nature anymore.”

For the full article, click below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61061365

==================

How big is backlog in my area?

The latest available data shows the Crown Court backlog last December was 58,818 – down from a record of 61,000 cases earlier in 2021.

The overall average time it now takes for all types of cases to go from a report to the police to completion in court is 697 days, just below the record of 708 days set last summer.

This online tool reveals the average delays being seen court-by-court for serious sexual offences.

1 Comment for Sexual offence victims face longest-ever court waits:

K.

2022-04-29 06:09:52

The problem is it’s hard to obtain evidence after the fact. There are a lot of cases that often go ten years or longer before being reported. This introduces the issue of it being judged purely on testimony alone. And, if you consider a court of law - requires a log of evidence, it’s almost impossible to obtain a conviction if there is little more than hearsay being procured. I’m not indicating for one moment that people aren’t being truthful, but it is a factor that could be used unlawfully and unfairly. I know of a case of a man who was arrested and tried for the rape of a young woman, the case was dropped when they very promptly recognised that the “man” was actually transgendered and retained the previous genders private areas. The claimant had insisted that penile penetration had been used but recanted after new evidence cast a shadow over her testimony.