Yesterday the Government released a report that found rape and sexual assault victims who pre-record their evidence are more likely to have a better experience of the court process. The measure, which has been available in all crown courts in England and Wales since September last year, has made the experience less intimidating for victims and survivors since they do not have to face their alleged attackers in the full glare of a courtroom.
As much as I welcome this move by the Government, more needs to be done — and now.
Last month Rape Crisis England & Wales release a critical report titled “Breaking Point: the re-traumatisation of rape and sexual abuse survivors in the Crown Courts backlog”.
The title of the report speaks for itself, but the numbers in it are eye-watering. There are currently 7,859 sexual offence cases, and 1,851 adult rape cases waiting for a trial date or for the trial to start.
I cannot tell you how incredibly painful it is to read these numbers. Because I know the courage it takes to report a sexual offence or rape. I have held the hands of friends as they have done so. I have sat in coffee shops with others as they talked about their experiences and why they chose not to report them. Many of us know how brutal the criminal justice system is for women and girls and that is one of the reasons I took on a role as an independent advisor to the Home Office.
The reality is that the failure of consecutive governments to address not just the criminal justice system but also education and the social impact of toxic male behaviour has led to a UK where men are getting away with rape, while women and girls live in fear.
This is not just my view, it is backed up by The Breaking Point report which shows that victims and survivors of rape and other serious sexual offences are waiting the longest to have their experiences heard in court, with an average wait of 839 days from report to completion in court.
Now we need to be braver.
We need to be fast-tracking sexual offence cases, which would actually be beneficial for the accused. Justice delayed is justice denied — for both sides.
I say that because of course I always believe survivors, but delays also affect those who might be innocent. The report made other recommendations alongside fast-tracking cases. The one which stood out for me was the need for specialist sexual offence courts where all staff receive trauma-informed training.
This is a brilliant idea. I don’t see why the Government can’t just set up special courts to hear sexual offence cases. We have these for organised crime and crimes within financial services, we could do this for rape and sexual assault cases. This would not just speed things up but would give people confidence in the system and in convictions.
Over to the Ministry of Justice, then.
Millennials are being left behind
Last week Onward, a London-based think-tank, published a report that found people felt “too busy” or “too knackered” to participate in leisure activities. Knowing Onward, I knew they were talking about us millennials as the “people” and thought they could have just sent us a a short note, saying “You are old”.
Honestly, I think we are the forgotten generation — we don’t have a retirement plan, we can’t afford to buy property in the cities we are contributing to, we feel guilty for taking a break, and then we burn out.
Having said that, I do think we all dream of living the simple life a la the Paris Hilton show I’d rather follow her life than that of TikTok stars.
Us millennials need to find a life-work balance, but with the generation who are now the PM and First Ministers of this country I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Instead, we will just keep sending each other bittersweet videos of how much we hate our jobs and have no down time. A Simple Life, of sorts.
