Justice system 'failing women over rape and domestic abuse'

THE criminal justice system is failing women, the former Victims' Commissioner says.

- Steph Spyro

Dame Vera Baird said prosecutions for rape and domestic abuse have both "nose-dived".

And people reporting offences to police "don't always get treated with regard", she said.

Dame Vera said: "The criminal justice system is failing women fairly clearly.

"Prosecutions have nose-dived in rape from a particular decision taken by the CPS in 2016-17 deliberately to cut the numbers.

"It reduced rape prosecutions from 3,5004,000 a year, which had been the level for a decade, right down to, at its worst, 1,800 prosecutions in 2019.

Abuse