Sexual violence victims get 'terrible deal', says outgoing commissioner

Victims of sexual violence are receiving “a terrible deal” from the criminal justice system with only 2% of their attackers convicted in court, according to the outgoing victims’ commissioner.

In her final report after six years in office, Helen Newlove said there had been a breakdown in trust and that victims were being failed by law enforcement agencies. She called for victims of sexual violence to be provided with independent legal advice.

Reporting a rape or sexual assault was, for many victims, “as harrowing as the crime itself”, Lady Newlove said. Figures from the National Crime Survey for England and Wales show more than four in five of those who are sexually assaulted do not report it to the police. Only 2% of cases end up in a conviction.

The growth of digital technology and the ubiquity of smartphones had created vast quantities of personal data, Newlove said, exposing private lives to greater scrutiny even though there was anonymity for victims.

“We have created a climate whereby victims of sexual violence are routinely having their personal lives disproportionately investigated and disclosed in criminal trials,” her report noted. “In doing so, we are retraumatising them and potentially infringing a most basic human right – the right to privacy.”

Victims are routinely asked to sign what is called a “Stafford statement”, giving police and prosecutors the right to access and disclose to the court and defence team any of their historical personal data that might be relevant to the case.

Most do not have a lawyer they can consult. “Nor can they expect to be consulted throughout the process. This blanket consent allows police and CPS access to all your personal data from school, social services, medical, psychiatric or even notes from counselling.

“Disclosure of such sensitive material can have a devastating emotional effect on the victims. Crucially, I suspect, many victims are being deterred from reporting rape to avoid this intrusive disclosure.”

Newlove believes it is unfair to ask vulnerable victims to make uninformed decisions about revealing their private lives. “We’re asking vulnerable victims to make such decisions without support. That is why I want victims to access free legal advice when asked to consent to any form of disclosure. We would not accept that a defendant should be asked such a question without a lawyer present. Why should the same not apply to victims?”

The Ministry of Justice, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and victims’ and survivors’ organisations are discussing ways of improving the consent forms presented to those who report rapes.

Newlove was a legal secretary until the events of one evening in August 2007 catapulted her into the public consciousness. Her husband, Garry, was murdered by a gang on the doorstep of the family’s home in Cheshire.

He had gone outside to confront teenagers who were vandalising his wife’s car and a neighbour’s digger. His attackers were reported to have laughed as they kicked him to death.

The ensuing outrage and media attention transformed Newlove into a committed campaigner for justice whose personal experience delivered a different perspective on the shortcomings of the criminal justice system.

She has been succeeded in post by Dame Vera Baird QC, the former police and crime commissioner for Northumbria.