Specialist courts for rape cases to be rolled out across England and Wales

[IwantToRetire]

Specialist courts to handle cases of rape and other sexual offences will be introduced across England and Wales over the next two years, the prime minister has announced.

Each crown court will have at least one courtroom especially set up to hear such cases, while victims will be able to view proceedings remotely and give evidence from a separate room via video link.
Victims will also be provided with private entrances and waiting rooms to separate them from defendants, though it is understood this will be dependent on the architecture of each building.

Under the new measures, expected to cost around £23m from the Ministry of Justice's budget, court staff will be given "trauma-informed training" and a single person of contact will be assigned to each survivor.

From next month, trials will be given a fixed date rather than placed on floating lists in what Prime Minister Andy Burnham said was an effort to "rebalance the scales of justice and put victims first".

The government said the changes follow Labour MP Charlotte Nichols showing "immense strength and bravery" in speaking publicly about being raped and calling for changes to the justice system.

Nichols waived her automatic right to anonymity in March when she made a Commons speech and described having to wait more than 1,000 days to go to court.

Earlier this year, the government announced that rape victims would be given access to specialist legal advice throughout the criminal justice process.

Full article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5lympv9nw3jo

Good news.

I imagine these may also help with this horrific and seemingly very common situation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmpwln09gknzo

I wonder what is the difference between legal advice criminal lawyers and ' specialist legal advice'
The delays in courts are one of the biggest problems.

You'd hope so- specialist advice seems a good idea

The cynic in me says that this is mostly a PR move to grab a headline, as these facilities already exist and this is already done in some cases.

The problem as someone says above is that court delays are already huge and waiting for the trial to be held in one of the courts capable of providing it will cause even more delays.

It's a good objective for the future for rape trials to be held that way.

I think also that rape is a crime which needs to be tried either by a professional jury or by three judges on the bench, not a jury of ordinary people who just don't understand why a woman might behave the way they do with that unique crime.

waiting for the trial to be held in one of the courts capable of providing it will cause even more delays.

They're adding the facilities to more courts, which should help.

I think in theory it is great.

But I very much doubt they will be able to implement in a meaningful way.

Partly because of the cost.

Next the assumption there will be the staff and those who are part of preparing and presenting court cases (there was a thread about how to change the way payments are made for legal aid could in fact work against rape victims)

Added to which one of the biggest blocks to rape trials going to court is that the CPS only want cases they think can be won go to court (to make their stats look good)

Not forgetting how many reports of rape are ever properly investigated by the police.

New courts will make no difference if, as happens all too often, the police dont investigate, let alone get as far as sending to the CPS, who only want winnable cases to go to court.

Response from Centre for Women's Justice;

“We are also pleased to hear that rape trials will no longer be listed as ‘floating’ but will instead have a fixed date, providing victims with greater certainty. This is something we have long seen as an issue.

“However, these measures alone will not be enough to clear the existing backlog of rape cases awaiting trial in the Crown Courts. Many victims are likely to still face significant delays, both at police stage and through the courts, because of stretched resources within the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.”

Full statement https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/updates/cwj-response-to-the-introduction-of-specialist-rape-and-sexual-offences-courts-in-england-and-wales