Analysis of CPS data shows that according to its new measure of “volumes of non-convictions due to victim attrition”, this totalled 241 rape cases last year with a steady rise in the number dropping out each quarter from April to December.
The CPS only began compiling these figures for external publication in 2023. This figure represents nearly 10 per cent of rape cases received by the crown courts last year (2,566 in 2023).
Last year 1,436 trials of all offences in the crown court were adjourned owing to the absence of either a prosecution or defence advocate, a 20-fold increase on 2019. Of those, 252 were sexual offence trials compared with 16 sexual offence trials adjourned in 2019. Some complainants are waiting as long as five years for cases to come to trial. Delay adversely affects complainants’ support for rape prosecutions.
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