The prosecutions agency for England and Wales has previously pledged to “robustly challenge” sexsomnia claims after a string of high-profile cases where sexual offence suspects were acquitted – or had their investigations dropped – after the disorder was raised.
Suspects charged with serial sexual violence and child abuse are among those who have claimed they were in a sleepwalk state at the time of the alleged offending so could not be found guilty. Sleep experts say such claims can be difficult to disprove.
In one high-profile case, the CPS apologised and paid damages for failing to properly challenge a defendant’s claim that he had not raped a woman – and that, instead, she had been suffering from sexsomnia and engaged willingly while asleep.
Now a freedom of information request has revealed that despite its public promise to improve its handling of sexsomnia claims, the CPS does not know how many cases it has dropped in the past five years, or refused to bring charges in, after sexsomnia was raised.
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In April an Observer investigation identified 80 cases over the past 30 years where defendants accused of rape, sexual assault or child sexual abuse claimed to have been sleepwalking or suffering from sexsomnia at the time, including 51 in the past decade and eight in the last year. The figures are likely a significant underestimate as many cases do not reach the public domain.
It also found evidence of law firms advertising the so-called “sexsomnia defence” and boasting of charges being dropped after it put pressure on the CPS behind the scenes.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/08/how-many-cases-are-derailed-by-sexsomnia-claims-the-cps-doesnt-know
This feels like a war on women and it's relentless and done with what feels like the baffled collusion of so many organisations who have no intention of doing the work that they need to resolve any of these issues.
Apologies for the poor writing, I'm angry and distressed both by this and the recent revelation that more complainants are (understandably) abandoning rape trials as they're taking years to come to court.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/dec/06/trials-collapse-as-victims-abandon-cases-amid-long-court-delays