Max Hill, Director of Public Prosecutions
(Picture: PA)The Director of Public Prosecutions was on Tuesday accused of presiding over the “most catastrophic period in .. history for prosecuting rape” in an extraordinary dressing down from the Victims’ Commissioner.
Max Hill QC claimed in a radio interview that he was trying to restore lost public confidence over rape cases by changes that include saving cases from being written off by police.
But he was savaged minutes later by Dame Vera Baird QC, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, who accused him to trying to pin the blame for record low numbers of rape prosecutions on police when it was instead “almost entirely” the fault of the Crown Prosecution Service.
She said that rape convictions had plummeted since Mr Hill’s appointment in 2018 and that were now “half as many rapists off the streets as there were before Max Hill became DPP” as a result.
She added had Mr Hill had “watched it just carry on and nothing has been done to make it any different” and accused him of unveiling his new blueprint for improvement today in an attempt to “pre-empt” a likely negative inspection report on rape due on Friday.
“Max Hill has presided as DPP over the most catastrophic period in the CPS history for prosecuting rape,” Dame Vera told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in an interview soon after Mr Hill had been on the same programme spelling out his reform plans.
He admitted during the interview that there is a “crisis of trust” among women who are victims of sexual violence in the wake of statistics showing that only 1.3 per cent of more than 63,000 rape allegations made to police ending in prosecution.
But after Mr Hill suggested that part of the problem was that police were prematurely writing off some cases, Dame Vera hit back, pinning the blame instead on the DPP.
“It’s the CPS’s fault, almost completely. I could see .. Max Hill expecting him to accept some blame. But he didn’t. Oh no – the CPS were completely perfect, having followed a plan, it was the police they were having to put right,” she said.
“It isn’t a crisis of the criminal justice system as a whole … it is essentially the CPS - 63,000 complaints shows that rape complainers are still keen to get justice if they can and haven’t lost their faith at all.
“Every year since 2010, the CPS prosecuted charged 3,900ish cases. Every year since he’s arrived they’ve prosecuted less than 2,000. Convictions were always over 2,200, they got almost to 3,000 – since he arrived, they’ve never been more than 1,500. “
Dame Vera, who is also a former Labour minister, dismissed the notion that cuts to CPS budgets were an excuse, saying that the organisation had been given an extra £85 million in 2019, but had only achieved 41 more rape prosecutions this year.
She added: “As for them being perfect, they’re expecting an inspection report on Friday and it seems to me that he’s trying to pre-empt it because it’s likely to be poor.”
Earlier Mr Hill said he was “deeply frustrated” that “so many .. women who suffer sexual violence” lacked faith in the criminal justice system and admitted that “far too few” allegations were even reaching prosecutors.
But he said an overhaul of the way that rape cases are dealt with, including reviewing cases deemed by police to be evidentially too difficult, was already achieving improvements including turning investigations that would previously have been halted into charged cases at court.
His comments came as the CPS published an update on its handling rape and serious sexual offences which also highlights plans to recruit more specialist rape prosecutors and improve victim support.
