6 Monday January 3 2022 | the times
News
One in five criminal cases is dropped
despite a suspect being identified due to
the apparent reluctance of victims to
support a prosecution.
Nearly one million offenders known
to police escaped justice in a single year
as a result and campaigners say the
figure highlights a crisis of confidence
in the criminal justice system.
More than 40 per cent of investiga-
tions involving rape or violence against
the person — which includes domestic
violence complaints — and two thirds
involving sexual offences did not
proceed because of a lack of victim
co-operation. Victims were far more
likely to support prosecutions in other
areas such as drug offending, robbery
and weapons offences.
Women’s groups have argued that
Reluctant victims let suspects off hook
the treatment of sex offence victims has
had a serious impact on the numbers of
complainants progressing to court.
Concern about so-called digital strip
searches, in which a victim’s relation-
ship history and other factors are
trawled, are a significant factor in the
drop-out rate for sexual offences.
Rape convictions are at their lowest
levels in history, with 57,000 rapes
reported to police in 2019/20 but only
1,109 convictions. Three quarters of
domestic abuse cases result in no
further action.
In the year to June, according to
Ministry of Justice statistics, a total
of 1.2 million offences were not prose-
cuted because the victim did not
support further action. They included
970,093 cases in which a suspect had
been identified by police, accounting
for 21 per cent of all offences.The rate has steadily increased in
recent years. In the year to June 2015
just under 8 per cent of cases were
dropped for this reason.
There is a stark difference in the
figures depending on the nature of the
crime. About 10 per cent of drugs
and weapons cases, and 16 per cent of
criminal damage and arson cases, were
dropped because of a lack of victim
co-operation.
Across the period another 583,
criminal cases were dropped because of
evidential difficulties, even though a
suspect had been identified and the
victim supported a prosecution. It
accounted for 12 per cent of all cases.
Andrea Simon, director of the End
Violence Against Women Coalition,
said: “The issues have to be about im-
proving procedural justice, making
sure victims have support and makingsure cases progress at a reasonable
speed. All of those things are missing
from the current journey through
the system. As a result there is high at-
trition.
“In sexual violence cases there are of-
ten officers without specialist know-
ledge so they go about investigations in
invasive manner. It is a perfect storm
that would discourage any victim from
proceeding, then they get a lot of blame
for failing to support prosecutions.”
She added that in no other crime type
was there such focus on the credibility
of the victim’s account, and “this is
something the government and
criminal justice leaders have promised
to address with a vital move to more
suspect-focused rape investigations”.
Claire Waxman, the independent
victims’ commissioner for London, said
that claiming victims did not supportprosecutions was “lazy policing” and
there were many other reasons for the
withdrawal of cases.
She added: “When you talk to victims
it’s not that they don’t want to support,
but they haven’t been given enough
information and support to stay in the
process.”
A government spokesman said: “We
are overhauling the way rape and other
sexual violence is dealt with by the
criminal justice system so that the pro-
cess is less intrusive for victims and
they have the confidence that their
cases will be rigorously pursued with
support available at every stage.
“At the same time, we are investing
almost half a billion pounds to deliver
swifter justice, consulting on a Victims’
Law to hold justice agencies to account
and boosting funding for victims’
services to £185 million a year.”Fiona Hamilton Crime & Security Editor
Bank apps
can stop
you walking
into a scam
Kaya BurgessBanking apps can track walking styles,
typing speed, the times of payments
and even the user’s heart rate to protect
against fraud, experts have said.
UK Finance, the banking trade asso-
ciation, has been told to use the app to
determine whether a customer’s phone
might have been stolen or is being used
fraudulently.
The Information Commissioner’s
Office said in May last year that the bio-
metric measurements should be used in
a “targeted and proportionate way”.
The app can use a range of measure-
ments to flag any unusual changes to
the bank, which can then alert a
customer to check that their accounts
and cards are secure.
An industry source told The Times:
“There are things about the way you
use an app. For example, if you are
being particularly slow when using on-
line banking, that might be unusual for
you and might show you are potentially
being ‘coached’ through something.
“Another can be the time you use
these things. If you usually make pay-
ments in the middle of the day but then
use it at 3am, that might be suspicious.”
The information office, which is
sponsored by the Department for
Digital and Culture, said that the
measurements should be used for an
increase in security that “cannot be
achieved in a less intrusive way”.
The office said that it was important
to consider whether “behavioural bio-
metrics provide better protection
against fraud” than “knowledge-based”
security, where users input passwords,
and more traditional biometric meas-
ures such as fingerprint scanning.
The European Banking Authority set
out guidelines in 2019 on which types
of biometric measurements would
comply with new rules around “strong
customer authentication”. These in-
cluded eye scanning, voice recognition,
keystroke dynamics and heart rate.
NatWest said in 2020 that it would be
introducing new security measures.
“Behavioural biometrics works by
analysing the unique ways a customer
interacts with their device,” a spokes-
man said. “The technology uses this
information to confirm who is making
the purchase and does not access or
share any private data held on a device.”Take licences
off distracted
drivers, urge
safety groups
Nadeem Badshah
Safety campaigners want tougher
penalties for people who drive while
distracted as figures showed that more
than 900 repeat offenders were allowed
to keep their licence.
One motorist was caught nine times
in four years. The person, who has not
been identified, was among 932 British
drivers convicted of driving while
distracted more than once. Twenty-
seven drivers were caught between
three and five times; 904 were caught
twice and 90,057 were caught once,
according to the statistics from the
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
(DVLA).
Jason Wakeford, head of campaigns
at Brake, the road safety charity, said:
“Driving is one of the most dangerous
things we do on a daily basis, and re-
quires full concentration to do so safely.
“It is alarming to see repeat offenders
still on the roads and putting other
people at risk. Drivers who regularly
disregard the law should have their
licences revoked. This would help save
lives, prevent needless injuries, and
send a clear signal that driving is a
privilege and not a right.”
The figures are a snapshot of the
number of CU80 endorsements on
driving records on November 13 last
year. These are given to motorists con-
victed of not being in full control of
their vehicle because they are using a
phone, for example. People given
CU80s also get three to six penalty
points. Most drivers are disqualified for
at least six months if they accumulate 12
or more points over three years, but
courts can allow offenders to keep
driving if there are extenuating circum-
stances, such as extreme hardship.
Simon Williams, media relations
manager at the RAC, said: “Sadly, these
figures demonstrate that far too many
drivers are still breaking the law and
putting others on the road needlessly at
risk.”
The DVLA said that 506 of the
90,989 motorists with CU80 endorse-
ments were disqualified as a result.
Separate Department for Transport
data showed that 17 people were killed
and 114 were seriously injured in crash-
es in 2020 involving a driver using a
mobile phone. More than one in six was
either a pedestrian or a cyclist.
Beached owl It took Claire Eason, 55, a retired GP and sand artist, four hours to draw this giant picture using a garden
rake. She was asked to make it by a friend whose husband was in hospital with a family of the birds outside his windowCLAIRE EASON SAND2SOUL/SWNS