Spades required: Judicial review against CPS - Justice for rape victims

[pombear]

I'm sure this has been posted before, but just nudging again for anyone else who may be able to help, in case you haven't seen it.

End Violence against Women charity, supported by the Centre for Women's Justice who are acting for them, are bringing a judicial review against the CPS for secretly changing their approach to prosecuting rape cases. The CPS are not taking responsibility for the fall in % of prosecutions in rape, now less than 1.5% of cases reported that result in a charge. EVAW have evidence that show they are responsible.

The CPS are saying that the case has no merit, so therefore this small women's charity should pay all costs of defending the case.

The awesome Harriet Wistrich, Director of the Centre, and also a lawyer who is part of the legal team in this case, posted a short film today explaining the need for funding support for this part of their action.

As we can't post links directly to their funding ask, here's their website where you can learn more:
www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/

And here's their main twitter account where you can see Harriet's video:
twitter.com/EVAWuk

1.5% is pitiful. It's painfully bad.

Thanks for posting - I'll have a bit of a dig.

But instead we are supposed to feel sorry for all those poor vulnerable self identifying men... that figure is disgusting and the CPS should be ashamed. Digging tomorrow

Thanks, will dig tomorrow.

Just a reminder that if you sell on eBay you can donate a percentage to CWJ.

Thanks for this. It’s a disgrace, to put it mildly. Will dig when I can

I have just added a small pile of earth.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more about this on here. It has the potential to have a massive impact on women. So sad that people don't seem to care much

Thanks for sharing, I've just donated.

Troglodistes
The crowd funder has been up for some time (and mentioned on here) Many of us have already contributed (along with a number of other crowd funders). It seems somewhat uncalled for to rock up on here and state that women on this board don't care

Sorry I didn't mean any offence! I tend to lurk and perhaps should go back to doing so. I just don't remember seeing anything about it on the feminism board and it's a pretty big case that is happening in less than a week! Apologies!

Don't go back to lurking Troglodistes. Join in - we all get challenged at times and it can feel tough. Apologies if I was a bit snarky.
You're right that this is a critical issue - the Centre for Women's Justice is a hugely respected charity and the JR is really important. I can only speak for myself but I feel at times quite drained with how much under threat women and children are from so many quarters. The removal of women's rights and identity will make it even impossible to defend women and our rights, hence so much focus on the issues. But that doesn't mean that many of us are not working and focusing elsewhere off the board.

Ok. It does just feel the self ID stuff is taking up so much space on here and social media. I appreciate it is a really huge issue but there are also so many other pressing problems for women.

All the issues we talk about here are important. We dig when we need to and many women share information , have meetings and publicise when then need to . Women’s rights are being removed everywhere we look. This is not a hierarchy of shit happening.

Thanks for the reminder. I think I helped a bit with the digging before, but I've helped again.

Giving this a bump. I have dug.

www.theguardian.com/law/2020/mar/14/jill-saward-ealing-family-donate-cps-legal-claim

The Saward family are such amazing and inspiring people.

Jill Saward was inspirational - coming out openly as a rape survivor and doing so much to publicise the issues. She was the victim of a violent rape and robbery in 1986 and the Judge gave the rapists a lesser sentence because he said :
"I have been told the trauma suffered by the victim was not so great, I shall take a lenient course with you". The Sun also published her photo (just with her eyes blacked out) and she was immediately identifiable as the vicarage where she lived was mentioned in all the reports.
Her case and her subsequent campaigning led to changes in the law including not identifying rape victims (and the Judge subsequently apologised to her for his comments)

I just donated to EVAW but should it have been to the CWJ?

The details of Jill Saward's case were horrific and the judge's comments were disgraceful.
I still feel she was treated abominably by the judicial system.

www.theguardian.com/law/2020/mar/15/cps-failed-to-tell-inspectors-of-internal-review-revealing-case-failings

'The Crown Prosecution Service conducted a secret internal review that exposed its failings in rape cases – but failed to share it with inspectors who were conducting an official inquiry for a major government investigation into rape, the Guardian can reveal.

The CPS inspectorate and the government told the Guardian they were unaware of the existence of the report until January 2020.

A Guardian investigation has obtained a copy of the unpublished report, which examined 200 unprosecuted rape cases. It found that in the majority of cases prosecutors were overreaching by making “disproportionate” and “unnecessary” requests for additional information.'

Quick bump for the weekend.