Then-DPP Starmer apologised to persecuted victim – but continued the practice anyway
As is all too often the case, Keir Starmer’s words and actions did not match when he was – as he never tires of reminding everyone, Director of Public Prosecutions – and victims of rape suffered for it.
Starmer apologised to victims of rape who were prosecuted by his Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who were disbelieved by police – and in some cases bullied into dropping their complaints – and went so far as to personally take control of decisions on such prosecutions. But he never ended the practice – and women continued to be pursued under his personal decisions.
The Guardian reported the apology and decision to assume direct control in 2010 – but noted that Starmer was criticised by campaign group Women Against Rape (WAR) for allowing the prosecution of a victim to proceed:
We are working with several women who have been wrongly accused of making a false allegation of rape – their conviction is a miscarriage of justice resulting from a negligent and biased investigation into their rape. One of these prosecutions went ahead despite our raising it with Mr Starmer. Will his personal involvement bring these injustices to an end, or merely reinforce them?
And after Starmer took direct control, the prosecutions did not end. In 2020, seven years after Starmer left the CPS, WAR wrote to the Camden New Journal, Starmer’s local paper:
Sir Keir has been applauded by some, but others, including ourselves who work with many victims, have criticised his refusal to end the Crown Prosecution Service policy of prosecuting rape survivors who are disbelieved by the police.
[This was cut from the letter we submitted: Such cases are similar to the shocking prosecution of a young woman in Cyprus who reported rape by a group of Israeli men but was forced to retract and was herself jailed.]
We have worked with a number of women the British police bullied to retract: some did, others refused but all were treated as criminals.
One woman raped at age 15 was charged with lying when police claimed to have found no sperm on her T-shirt where her rapist had ejaculated. We helped get a second investigation by another police force who found the sperm and the man was finally prosecuted. She was saved from prison and later sued the police for £20,000.
Many are not so fortunate and face long sentences – often longer than convicted rapists; one woman is in prison for 10 years. Another woman, attacked by strangers on her way home, was given a three year sentence while evidence of the assault was lost or not pursued; her brother had complained of police racism – did that play a part?
We raised such cases at a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer when he was Director of Public Prosecutions (2008-2013), demonstrating how the prosecution of disbelieved victims skews police investigations and undermines women’s ability to report rape.
To no avail – the policy remains.
That police and CPS have got worse since Sir Keir left is not evidence that he was good.
Their decision that victims must hand over mobile phones and social media history, medical and counselling records, which are disclosed to their attacker, has of course led to a further drop in rape prosecutions.
In most British cases it is not the rapists who are on trial but their victims.
Add to this austerity which has made women and children more vulnerable to violence, and has cut escape routes – refuges, benefits, etc.
When under 3 per cent of reported rapes lead to a conviction, rapists have almost complete impunity. Sir Keir didn’t feel strongly enough against rape to confront police sexism, racism and other prejudices, and press for better investigations when he had the power to do so.
This is not an isolated example. Mr Starmer has similarly boasted that he will protect women and girls from domestic abuse if he becomes prime minister. However, as Labour leader he repeatedly ignored a whistleblower’s warnings that domestic violence victims were being ‘criminally’ and ‘sadistically’ abused and exploited by the lover of right-wing MP Khalid Mahmood, who also worked in Mahmood’s office. Instead of acting on whistleblower Elaina Cohen’s warnings, Starmer and Labour general secretary David Evans did nothing, while Mahmood wrongfully sacked Cohen.
Starmer also turned a blind eye to the persecution of Muslim woman MP Apsana Begum and fraternised with the people attempting to remove her – and is currently sheltering at least two alleged sex pests on his front bench.
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Well done Steve for linking to the ‘dumptheguardian’ archive site version of the Guardian. At least that way your readers don’t generate clicks and advertising revenue for this noticeably inconsistent part of the MSM.
Re whistleblowers, let’s not forget the leaked report and Starmer’s transformation from “Unity Candidate” to Senator McCarthy once he won. It wasn’t only the leadership leaflet 10 Pledges that he ditched.
Find myself wondering if Starmer can even describe a woman. Seems to be a great question for tying politicians in knots.
I don’t feel that £20k begins to cover that poor woman’s experience.
NVLA. His on/off switch is behind his left ear, empathy switch is by his crown( they always forget to turn it on) so he just imagines that the chest feeders switch is on the opposite side.
3% are convicted
False
60% are convicted and 40% found innocent
In most British cases it is the victims who are on trial not the rapists
Utter garbage, let’s go with 99.9% of false claims are never prosecuted
I’m 63 I remember when according to feminists ‘all men are bastards’ that was back in the 70’s
Now apparently all men are Rapists
Methinks not
Why in God’s name would anyone want to exaggerate something so horrific for victims AND those falsely accused
Sooner we bring back anonymity for those accused the better and stop misreporting the reality, which is it is an extremely rare crime
100,000 a year according to a survey does not equate to 3,000 a year convicted, what planet are you on
FFS
The numbers you’re contesting Doug are Women Against Rape (WAR) data. I trust them, but remember, both the police and CPS are accused of obfuscating the data. It’s a messy area.
qwerboi
Your better than that, go see how they get those numbers, its a survey, respondents get to define what happened to them, 50,000 were not reported
As one eminent Lawyer stated until a court makes a finding their are no victims or perpetrators, no one gets to act as judge and jury
If I wanted to play their game I would argue 97, 000 out od 100, 000 claims of rape each year are by definition FALSE
qwertboi
On another matter,
It is no longer left v right but right v wrong
Andrew Bridgen took a bullet today
“It is no longer left v right but right v wrong
Andrew Bridgen……”
I’d put it differently, but, yeah re Bridgen’s expulsion from the Conservative party re his covid statements, two things occur to me:
1) The expulsion is an attempt to copy the odious alleged leader of Labour and look like as good a stalin as he does;
2) The anti-anti-covid thing will go against the tory party. Back in the early days of the power-grab/coup it was ConservativeWoman.com or org that I visited a lot for general information. In the United States and here (but not in Europe) it’s usually the centre right that question the authoriatrianism that the non-epidenc ‘pandemic’ has enabled AND – to its credit – questioned the bad science around masks, lockdowns, ‘tests’ (lol) and of course non-vaccine dangerous vaccines.
The moderate and democratic left et al mostly became ‘lock-down lefties’ and the SWSW etc became something worse
Maybe Bridgen will have to do a Jeremy or a Diane and apologise and retract. I hope not.
He has the support of 100 Israeli medics and scientists, who wrote directly to Rishi on his behalf, it was there report that stated ‘this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust ‘
Pretty unequivoca
The distressing truth is that if you are raped in Britain today, your chances of seeing justice are slim
In my first annual report in 2020, I [Dame Vera Baird] made headlines by saying that we were witnessing the effective decriminalisation of rape. During my subsequent years in post as Victims’ Commissioner, little has swayed me from that perspective. Despite a long-delayed end-to-end rape review, various governmental action plans and plenty of tinkering round the edges, you can’t escape the numbers; they continue to speak for themselves…
For victims, reporting rape is effectively a lottery and the odds are rarely in your favour. In the year to December 2021, there were 67,125 rape offences recorded – an all-time high. Yet the number of completed rape prosecutions plummeted from 5,190 in 2016-17 to just 2,409 in 2020-21. The numbers of convictions almost halved (2,689 in 2016/17 compared to 1,409 in 2020/21). Only 5% of rapes that were given an outcome by the police in the year ending December 2021 resulted in a charge.
https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/news/the-distressing-truth-is-that-if-you-are-raped-in-britain-today-your-chances-of-seeing-justice-are-slim/
PW
The numbers are so overwhelming that there is simply not sufficient evidence to prosecute
Why would we not break down and educate people on what is not rape
Surely that’s positive, it’s certainly as valid as relying on self identification as victim
If there’s evidence to prosecute for rape, then prosecute.
Same for false claims.
The law states you can ONLY convict beyond reasonable doubt
But you can’t have it both ways and demand the conviction rate rises arbitrarily while not investigating or deliberately withholding evidence that might cast that doubt.
When all’s said n done, keefs’ still a knob head. And always will be. I’m 100% convinced before it goes to any jury. .
No prosecution for serious sexual allegations will go to jury in Scotland as the #Me Too demand for increased prosecutions for rape will be the business of a Judge and not a Jury of peers (can’t be trusted to make the right decision). Can’t help thinking that the demand for increased prosecutions, regardless of proven guilt or innocence, has nothing to do with Justice.
steve101704
I think police and CPS are getting there slowly, the system is constantly looking to improve
Judges only won’t help women, there is bias in the system which would equate to about 1 in 10 cases that go to court, but the debate and the education is non existent
Get real with the numbers and educate what should be reported
In the case of Diane Abbott, what is there to investigate?
The only purpose here, as far as I can see, is to spin things out and ensure that she will not be a candidate at the next election.
Truly sickening statement from Miliband:
“Is [Jenrick] not right to say the tens of thousands of people who are presently hoping for asylum are putting immense pressure on public services?”
Miliband “Yes it’s a problem & yes it’s got to be dealt with”