England: Labour MP calls for abolition of juries in rape trials

Ann Coffey, MP for Stockport, said juries are reluctant to find young men guilty even where they think they have committed rape.

She said: “A perfect storm is developing where juries are reluctant to convict young men charged with rape, the CPS are therefore reluctant to prosecute and the police are therefore reluctant to refer.

“The result of this is that victims will stop coming forward and justice will be denied. The danger is we will be thrown back to the dark days where victims of abuse are silenced and dare not speak out.”

Men aged between 18-24 are less likely to be found guilty of rape than older men, according to statistics obtained by Ms Coffey in a freedom of information request.

In 2017-18 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charged 849 fewer defendants than in the previous year, a decline of 23.1 per cent.

Ms Coffey has called for an inquiry in England and Wales into whether or not juries are fit for purpose in rape trials and whether specialist rape courts should be introduced.

“I absolutely accept that the justice system needs to deliver justice and that means that the innocent go free and the guilty are sentenced but my concern at the moment is that the conviction rates indicate that the scales of justice are tipped against the victim [sic],” she said.

“It is no use us all wringing our hands about this. We cannot have a situation in which young women who have been raped feel that they have no access to justice, because this undermines the whole justice system.”

The CPS has been dogged by controversy in the past year over a number of collapsed prosecutions and disclosure failings.