It seeks to shine a light and bring accountability and transparency regarding prosecutorial practices and decision making on rape and sexual offence cases at the CPS. The EVAW case is clearly an extremely important and valuable legal challenge. This, they suggest, culminated in prosecutors being encouraged in 20 not to charge ‘weaker’ cases, with the aim of improving the conviction rate for rape. The EVAW says that prosecutors were trained away from the merits-based approach, adopting the ‘bookmaker’s approach’ instead, which resulted in prosecutors considering the likely outcome of a case based on past experience of similar cases. This shift to a different approach was a conscious move away from the ‘merits-based approach’ advocated by former DPP, now Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer QC. The collapses of these trials were due to failures by the CPS to disclose critical exculpatory evidence to the defence, leading to an urgent review of all live rape cases and the discontinuance of hundreds.ĮVAW argue that the introduction in 2016 of a convictions target of 60%, combined with a shift to a fundamentally different approach to prosecutions, led to a ‘catastrophic’ collapse in the number of rape cases being charged. During the period in question, the DPP was Dame Alison Saunders, who left in 2018, in the wake of criticism of the CPS over the collapse of a number of high profile rape trials in 2017-2018. The current DPP is Max Hill QC, who took up the role in November 2018. The basis of the claim is that the CPS and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) acted unlawfully over a period of 19 months from September 2016 to April 2018. The case was brought by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), with final judgment to be given at a later date. Support with Regulatory and Internal InvestigationsĪt the end of January 2021, the Court of Appeal comprised of LCJ Lord Burnett of Maldon, LJ Holroyde and LJ Laing, heard a claim for Judicial Review which was refused at first instance by the High Court.Legal Support for Training, Apprenticeship and Educational Bodies.
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