Cherie Blair has warned that rape victims are being “woefully” failed by the courts because “pervasive” myths are blocking survivors from obtaining justice.
Writing for The Independent, the leading barrister said a “huge proportion” of Britons do not properly understand how rape and consent work, with misconceptions of sexual violence prevalent among those who sit on rape trial juries.
Ms Blair, the wife of former prime minister Tony Blair, argued that progress has “stalled” on tackling violence against women and girls – drawing attention to lengthy wait times for victims and “abysmally low conviction rates”.
It comes after The Independent revealed that the number of rape suspects out on bail has reached record highs as a massive court backlog means tens of thousands of victims battle delays.
Ms Blair cited YouGov polling, commissioned by the prominent campaign group End Violence Against Women Coalition, which found that a third of people in Britain believe it is not rape if a woman is pressured into having sex with someone but there is no physical violence.
Ms Blair said: “A third of men think if a woman has flirted on a date it generally wouldn’t count as rape, even if she hasn’t explicitly consented to sex, and a quarter think that sex without consent in long-term relationships is usually not rape.
“These social attitudes are concerning because they show a huge proportion of adults in Britain – who make up juries that are responsible for deciding the verdict in rape trials – are doing so despite being very unclear about what rape and consent is.”
Her comment comes days after a government rape adviser announced she was quitting her job over the criminal justice system’s failures to hold her alleged attacker to account for repeatedly breaching his bail conditions.
Emily Hunt told The Independent her decision to step down was also prompted by feeling like there was a lack of “will” and “drive” to improve justice for rape survivors.
Ms Blair said Ms Hunt was by no means the first person to warn of these problems, with others condemning a “culture of disbelief and victim blaming, where often survivors themselves feel they are on trial and face harrowing experiences in the courts”.
The barrister drew attention to those who have warned that rape has effectively been decriminalised in the UK, as she warned victims of rape “deserve a legal system that stands with them, not against them”.
She argued women and girls must feel able to “trust” police officers when they come forward to report abuse – adding that “faith needs to be restored” in the criminal justice system and that we must not permit conviction rates to continue to decline.
Ms Blair, who heads the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, added: “The backlog of rape and sexual offences in the Crown Courts in England and Wales has also risen to a record high.
“Rape cases are now taking an average of more than two years to complete in court with these long waiting times leaving survivors in limbo and having a devastating impact on their wellbeing. These delays put survivors at risk, compound trauma, and increase the chances of women dropping out of the criminal justice process.”
