UK apologizes to rape victims for a failed justice system

LONDON – Thousands of rape and sexual assault victims have been failed by the criminal justice system, according to a British government review released Friday that cited a dramatic fall in convictions in England and Wales in recent years, prompting an apology from government ministers.

In an interview with the BBC, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the findings revealed "systemic failings" to deal with complaints made by victims "at all stages of the criminal justice process."

He added, "The first thing I think I need to say is sorry, it's not good enough. We've got to do a lot better."

The review, which only covered cases with adult victims but acknowledged that children and young people were also subject to sexual assaults, was commissioned in March 2019 by the Conservative government. The review was intended to address the decline in rape prosecutions, which the Ministry of Justice said fell 59%, and convictions, which have dropped 47%, since 2015-16.

In that time, adult rapes jumped to 43,187 from 24,093, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But the government estimates that fewer than 20% of rape cases are actually reported and that the number of victims is about 128,000 a year. Of reported cases, just 1.6% resulted in a person being charged.

The report came as Britain grapples with a national reckoning over male violence against women that erupted in March after a police officer was arrested in the killing of a young woman, Sarah Everard. This month, Wayne Couzens, 48, pleaded guilty to the rape and kidnapping of Everard.

The review also found that the reasons for the decline are "complex and wide-ranging," including an "increase in personal digital data being requested, delays in investigative processes, strained relationships between different parts of the criminal justice system, a lack of specialist resources and inconsistent support to victims."

Emily Hunt, an independent adviser to the review who was herself a victim of rape, said in the report that the low prosecution rate could not be attributed to possible false claims, which government data suggests account for up to 3% of rape allegations.

Katie Russell, national spokesperson for Rape Crisis, a charity that is part of a coalition of women's groups called End Violence Against Women, welcomed the government's admission of its own "catastrophic failures."

However, she said, the drop in prosecutions could not be accounted for by cuts in funding and resources alone, which Buckland alluded to.

"It's clear there are wider cultural issues and issues of the actual functioning of the criminal justice system, in relation to rape and sexual offenses," said Russell.

Bonny Turner, a sexual assault activist who has gone public about her experience with an investigation of her 2016 rape allegations, which was dropped by prosecutors because of insufficient evidence, said the report's findings came as little comfort.

The report did not make any reference to how the government "is going to redress the situation with those of us who have already been failed," she said. "It's as if they feel as if they think they can just get away with an apology but no action to back that up."