To think the CPS just don't care about rape cases

[Absofrigginlootly]

So apparently he can't possibly have raped her because she consented to cuddling?? And now the CPS think the prospect of conviction is too low to proceed.

Rape case collapses after 'cuddling' photos emerge
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42696986

FFS I'm so fed up of reading this sort of shite.

does this link work?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42696986

Ok fair enough I didn't know those details I've only read this one report.

I appreciate it's not "he couldn't possibly have raped her" (I was being sarcastic) but that's how people will see these things. Because these views aren't challenged in court.

Just like that student who didn't face trial because she badgered him via text for casual sex.... that doesn't actually mean she still couldn't have been raped....??

I'm just feeling pissed off because of a close friends case who got dropped by the CPS for spurious reasons I spose... but it definitely seems to be a pattern.

No wonder conviction rates are so low

Cps will only prosecute if it thinks it can get a conviction - they apply this rule to every case

The cps have difficult decisions to make, nor only in rape cases but in serous crime everyday. They can't make decisions based on the emotions that you have, op.

I agree it is extremely frustrating. In the court of law the burden of proof is 'beyond reasonable doubt' to convict an individual of any wrongdoings. Unfortunately it is often extremely difficult to obtain evidence to suggest this was the case, the prosecution often find it difficult to convince a jury that sex was not consensual without any evidence that would make a jury conclude a guilty verdict.

A close friend of mine was raped on holiday but didn't take it further because she knew there was no evidence and feared interrogation from the defence, especially when she initially kissed the guy before the rape happened. Very sad.

Yes but the "no realistic prospect of conviction" is based in the fact they don't think the evidence will convince a jury, yes?

My point is that I feel like 'rape myths/culture' feeds into that in terms of what they think a jury will accept.

But if these views are never challenged there will be no change??

I don't know I just feel like the more I read the more it feels like laws and justice are designed by men for the benefit of men

Op, I deal in rape investigation for a living. Rape myths no longer come into an investigation but the evidence for a prosecution has to be there.

do you have any evidence for such a statement?

I read the article in the Independent on this. She said she was raped and held against her will. Photos, which she never mentioned, show her smiling and snuggling. Now yes he could have forced her to pose for them but she never said that, and a jury couldn't see happy smiling post coital snaps that weren't accounted for and yet have no doubt that he had raped her.

Nicknaky how can you possibly say that rape myths no longer come into an investigation when for example many of the 100 alleged victims of worboys were not taken seriously or believed by the police??

What I mean is that rape myths like "well she wanted casual sex" or "she voluntarily into bed naked with him" etc would be held by many members of the public i.e. Jury

OH ffs MN kept freezing and reloading and now posted multiple times

Because I deal in rape investigated now. Not 10/15 years ago.

It isn't relevant to an investigation if a victim has casual sex. I don't even ask. I only ask about a previous partner for the purpose of forensic examination of any intimate samples.

As for a jury, there is nothings the police or cps/PF can do about their viewpoint apart from try eliminate them prior to a court case.

Hmmm can you honestly say that much has changed in recent years?? I don't believe it

Very much so. Even in the 7 years I have been doing it it has changed massively for the better.

DP was a juror on a rape trial. The evidence was overwhelming and included multiple witnesses (of other abuse, not the rape), a huge file of sickening text messages, and numerous police reports etc.

The defendant wasn't found guilty.

It is really, really fucking hard to convince a jury to convict for rape. Unless there's a video of it happening then it's one person's word against another. Jurors often think 'yup, he probably did it. But the scary judge says don't convict unless you know beyond reasonable doubt that he definitely did do it'.

It's not the fault of the cps.

As a victim of rape I think attitudes still have not changed. I struggled to come forward at the time of the incident. I had "washed away evidence", went to their house alone and it was my word against his. I was 16, he was 18 and he waited for his mother to leave the house before pinning me down, ripping my top and bra and forcing my jeans down. Once he had finished, he went to the bathroom and I ran. His mother was just coming through the door as I reached the bottom of the stairs and said "looks like you've had some fun". The shame I felt was crushing. It took me a long time to tell anyone. When my parents called the police they made me feel like a silly little girl who had been asking for it.

OP, no one is saying it's not terrible more people aren't prosecuted, but as numerous people have pointed out, there is an evidentiary standard that must be met - the simple fact is that many of these sorts of cases (and not just rape) come down to one person's word against another because of a lack of evidence. This is not enough to convict 'beyond reasonable doubt'

The other alternative is that we remove the evidentiary standard and you wait 20 years to make it to court as the system is so clogged up.

CPS wouldn't prosecute my case either. The police officers who came to my house to tell me smirked as they told me.