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A \u201cdraconian\u201d practice that stops crime victims challenging last-\u00adminute decisions to drop their cases is leading to miscarriages of justice and must urgently be reformed, campaigners say.<\/p>\n
Under the Victims\u2019 Right to Review (VRR) scheme<\/a>, victims can challenge decisions <\/a>not to charge a suspect or to halt a prosecution. Successful appeals can lead to cases being reopened and may result in a conviction.<\/p>\n But the Observer<\/em> has uncovered details of nine rape and sexual offence cases where the Crown Prosecution Service<\/a> (CPS) offered no evidence shortly before trial, resulting in the case being closed and the defendant acquitted \u2013 before the victim could appeal.<\/p>\n In some cases, the CPS decision was later revealed to be flawed. One woman who found out her rape case was being closed just days before the trial was told it was because prosecutors had found text messages between her and the accused that undermined the case, when in fact they were from someone else with the same name.<\/p>\n In August, the CPS paid damages to a rape complainant after offering no evidence at trial following a defence claim of \u201csexsomnia\u201d<\/a>. A review found the decision was wrong and should have been challenged in court.<\/p>\n But once a defendant has been acquitted, double jeopardy rules prevent retrials \u2013 meaning victims can secure only an apology or, potentially, damages from the CPS if the decision is found to be wrong, rather than the chance to continue prosecution.<\/p>\n Following a cluster of cases, Dame Vera Baird<\/a>, the former solicitor general and victims\u2019 commissioner for England and Wales, has written to senior law officers to raise concerns about potential wrongful acquittals \u2013 and urged them to intervene.<\/p>\n In a letter sent on Friday to the attorney general for England and Wales, Lord Richard Hermer KC, and solicitor general, Sarah Sackman KC, Baird described the current CPS approach as grossly unfair and said it was \u201cundermining a right guaranteed by the statutory Victims\u2019 Code\u201d by offering no evidence, leading to a permanent acquittal, before there had been time for a VRR to be completed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to see the public interest in finalising a disputed decision not to prosecute, whilst there is a live review which may overturn it,\u201d Baird wrote. \u201cThe public should surely be protected from a potential offender, by resolving the VRR first, so that the CPS have a second opportunity to take him to court \u2026 It is a time for reflection on how this policy is causing injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n Campaigners have long called for the approach to handling VRRs in \u201cno evidence\u201d cases to be reformed, arguing that the CPS should delay seeking acquittals until the review process has concluded.<\/p>\n Maxime Rowson, policy lead at Rape Crisis England and Wales, said: \u201cIt is utterly unacceptable that victim-survivors, who often spend years navigating the criminal justice system and awaiting a trial date, can have their case ended so finally, sometimes on the day of trial.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on the CPS to end the draconian practice of offering no evidence, or at least to offer a \u00advictim-survivor the chance to appeal the decision before no evidence is offered, so that a case can continue if the appeals process finds in their favour.\u201d<\/p>\n The CPS said decisions to offer no evidence were \u201crare and never taken lightly\u201d. A spokesperson said: \u201cIn the vast majority of cases we get our decisions right first time \u2026 but the VRR scheme exists for victims to appeal in those instances where they don\u2019t believe we have made the right decision.<\/p>\n