Children are being ‘re-traumatised’ by delays in sex abuse prosecutions
Child sexual abuse prosecutions have fallen by 50 per cent as court delays and lack of support causes young victims to be “re-traumatised”, says the NSPCC.
Prosecutions for child sexual abuse in England and Wales have more than halved from 6,394 in 2016-17 to 3,025 in 2020-21, according to Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) data obtained by the NSPCC under freedom of information laws.
The number of convictions have also dropped by 45 per cent over the same period from 4,751 to 2,595 - even as the number of child sexual offences have increased by 57 per cent in five years to 73,518.
The charity blamed delays in bringing cases to trial on 25 per cent cuts in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) budget, the closure of courts and fall in number of court staff.
The time taken for child sexual abuse cases to get to court and be completed has increased by five months in the last three years, according to MoJ data, with the average time from the offence to judicial resolution standing at one year and ten months last year.
At the same time, the NSPCC said almost all specialist young witness schemes had been scrapped while there was a shortage of registered intermediaries.
'Long delays and inadequate support'
Anna Edmundson, NSPCC head of policy and public affairs, said: “Young victims of abuse have often lived through unimaginable trauma but many want to share their evidence with a court and prevent perpetrators from causing further harm.
“These figures show young witnesses are being denied this opportunity and those who do go to court experience long delays and inadequate support which risks re-traumatising them further. This is utterly unacceptable.
“We call on Dominic Raab to review and reverse the decline in prosecutions and convictions and use the Victims’ Law to tackle the delays affecting child sexual abuse cases going through court and provide much better support for young witnesses and victims.”
The NSPCC said young people had told it that going to court can be extremely daunting, with uneven access to pre-trial support and many experiencing long waits for their trial to start.
It said some also struggled to relive their abuse in court and were forced to face their abuser while others went through harsh and long cross-examinations which compounded their feelings of blame or guilt.
As a result, the NSPCC said young people experienced sleeping and eating problems, depression, panic attacks and self-harm.
It urged the Government to set up a review similar to that already underway into rape, to investigate the reasons for the slump in prosecutions, and tackle the delays and backlog in child sex abuse cases.
It said the Government should use the proposed new Victims’ Law to ensure young witnesses and victims had the support they deserved to give evidence and recover from abuse.
More work to do, admits CPS
A CPS spokesman said: "Child sexual abuse cases are some of our most challenging, complex and sensitive cases. They are dealt with by specially trained prosecutors, working closely with the police to build the strongest possible cases that meet our legal test.
“The number of these cases prosecuted has increased by 22 per cent in the past year with most resulting in a conviction.
“We recognise, however, there is more work to do to increase the number of cases going to court. The CPS is working collaboratively with partners across Government to address challenges that arise from when an allegation is made to prosecution.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “This government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our society, in particular children. That is why we are investing almost half a billion pounds to reduce court delays, spending over £185m on vital support services, and boosting the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors.
“We have also introduced measures to spare children the stress of being cross-examined in the courtroom. We are determined to deliver better support for all victims and swifter access to justice.”
