Courts backlog is leaving rape victims waiting four years for trials

RAPE victims are having to wait up to four years to go to court as the pandemic backlog pushes trials back to 2023, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Victim Support revealed yesterday they are helping victims of rape and sexual assault who have been waiting between two and four years to give evidence against their attacker in a trial.

The charity warned it was not only adding to the emotional stress for victims having to live with the uncertainty before reliving their attack in court, but increasing the risk of them dropping out from frustration or witnesses giving weaker evidence due to fading memories. “If cases are continually delayed, then some victims will say, ‘Is this worth it? Is it worth putting my life on hold for?” said Alex Mayes, of Victim Support.

One woman who was sexually assaulted has been given a court date later this year, which will mean she has had to wait just under four years since first reporting the attack to police, said the charity. Another woman, who reported her rape in 2019, has just been told that her case has been put back until January 2023.

It is not just sexual assaults but also domestic violence. In a letter to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, one such victim described how her case had been rescheduled three times and would not now be heard until March 2022, two years and nine months after the incident. “I have been left out in the cold by the judicial system and I am at both emotional and physical breaking point,” she wrote.

Crown Court backlogs have risen to more than 53,000, prompting the four criminal justice chief inspectors to warn that further urgent action is needed by the Government to avert long term damage to public trust in a system that is now in a “critical” state.

Mr Mayes said: “Victims feel they can’t move on from the crime if they are waiting two, three or four years. That’s a long time to live with the impact and to have a court case waiting over them.”

The Ministry of Justice said it had invested £450million to help reduce the backlog, including extra video technology and 18 Nightingale courts.