Burglary victims wait five years for justice

Crime
Crime

Victims of burglary are being forced to wait up to five years for justice because of record court delays, a Telegraph investigation has revealed

Nearly one in 10 victims of theft including burglary are having to wait more than two years from reporting their crime to police to the perpetrator being brought to trial, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data analysed by The Telegraph.

An alleged victim of an aggravated burglary in which eight men armed with machetes broke into her family home told The Telegraph she had been told the suspects would not be put on trial until 2026, even though she had already waited three years since the attack in October 2021.

“I am furious,” she said. “That’s how I have felt for the last three years because I am not sure I ever felt the police took it as seriously as they should have done.”

The attackers reportedly threatened her, her husband and two sons, demanding they hand over their valuables before the family fought back, forcing them to flee. Since the attack they have increased security, bought two guard dogs and, in the immediate aftermath, were too scared to let their youngest child go to school alone.

“It’s turned our lives upside down. We are much less trusting. I suspect we are all really traumatised.”

Her MP Stella Creasy, who has raised the case in Parliament with Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, said: “My constituents should not have to wait five years for justice. It is vital that we increase the capacity of the courts to be able to deal with serious offences such as this.”

The delays are the result of a backlog of Crown Court cases that has grown from 38,000 before Covid to a record 68,000. Shortages of legal professionals, the barristers’ strike, collapsing trials and the increase in complex cases such as rape are blamed for compounding the delays caused by the courts shutdown during the pandemic.

They cover all types of offences, according to a breakdown by The Telegraph. Victims of sexual offences, including rape, wait the longest at an average of 2,307 days or six years. Specifically for rape, it is 1,381 days, or three years and nine months.

Victims of fraud face the second longest waits at 1,647 days, or four-and-a-half years. As is the case with sexual offences, police investigations are long and complicated, often because one or more of the perpetrators may be based overseas. More than one in five (22.9 per cent) of fraud cases are more than two years old.

They are followed by public order offences (668 days), drug offences (632 days), violence (509 days), possession of weapons (499 days), robbery (473 days), theft (458 days) and criminal damage and arson (443 days).

The figures, however, exclude the thousands of cases that collapse as a result of victims withdrawing from prosecutions after losing faith in the criminal justice system because of the delays.

Abandoned backlog target

Baroness Newlove, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, said she was concerned that “chronic and unacceptable” delays were becoming ingrained in the system.

It is understood the MoJ has abandoned a target of reducing the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 cases by March 2025. Instead, internal estimates suggest it could be as high as 64,000, just 4,000 below the current record level.

“These delays compound victims’ trauma, affecting victims’ mental health and family relationships. The continued delays can prevent them from moving on with their lives,” said Baroness Newlove.

“This has real consequences for our justice system with many victims unable to last the distance, resulting in prosecutions having to be dropped.”

For victims, the problems can include last-minute cancellations even as they turn up at the doors of the courtroom.

Shortage of barristers

“Every month, almost 700 trials are unable to go ahead on their scheduled day and fall back into the queue because of myriad logistical issues, including defendants not being transported from prison, a shortage of barristers and overbooked courts running out of time to hear cases,” said Baroness Newlove.

“Almost 8,000 such ‘ineffective’ trials were recorded last year – making up a quarter of the total – and the figure is expected to rise further.”

On any one day, as many as 170 courtrooms stand empty to save money or because of shortages of judges, staff or lawyers, according to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA).

Mary Prior, KC, chairman of the CBA, said: “The true cost of cuts and a failure to invest in the criminal justice system is that people stop believing in justice.

“People may well ask, what is the point of calling the police to report a crime if it takes between four and six years for the trial to be heard? How can any of the participants get on with their lives in the meantime?”

An MoJ spokesman said: “This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with a record and rising Crown Court backlog. While we are bound by a difficult financial inheritance, we are committed to bearing down on the backlog.

“This Government has increased the number of crown court sitting days to 106,500, more than in six out of the last seven years. And we will soon extend magistrates’ sentencing powers from six to 12 months, freeing up 2,000 days in the Crown Courts to handle the most serious cases.”