Rape conviction review will only examine a fifth of cases

/ Mike Buchanan

Our thanks to Mike P for a Telegraph report on this scandal. The paper’s headline (above) is misleading. Extracts:

A major review into rape convictions, ordered in the wake of last year’s disclosure scandal, will only examine a fraction of the cases where a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, the Telegraph has learned.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) recently announced it would be revisiting 306 convictions on its books to identify if vital evidence had been missed during the original trial. [J4MB: 306 convictions is a small proportion of the rape convictions in recent years. And “to identify if vital evidence had been missed” is to admit that men charged with rape are considered guilty, and have to prove their innocence. In many cases e.g. “he said, she said” cases, there is no evidence, so the men will languish in prison.]…

As well as an urgent review by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)into live cases, the CCRC – the public body responsible for identifying miscarriages of justice – announced it would also be looking in detail at all 306 rape cases referred to it between April 2016 and March this year.

But an internal memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed that rather that examining all 306 cases in detail, only 61 will be explored in depth. [J4MB emphasis]

Following an initial review, a 20 per cent sample of the cases will then be selected at random, with investigators going through the police and CPS files in detail to see if there is any evidence that renders the conviction unsafe.

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