Victim attacks 'devastating' CPS failings
Updated on 20 September 2010
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer QC has issued a personal apology to a woman over "failings" in the handling of a sexual assault case. 'Josephine' tells Channel 4 News the experience left her feeling like it was her fault.
The woman, who for legal reasons can only be named as Josephine, was also given a damages payment of £16,000 after the CPS admitted her human rights had been breached.
She had made a complaint against the man following an attack after a birthday party in south London in 2006.
Before the case came to court the woman had been assured that she would be able to give evidence against the man from behind a screen, to protect her identity.
However on arrival, she was told there was no screen, and she would have to appear in front of the accused. The experience, she later said, had left her "petrified".
She told Channel 4 News there was no warning that she could be required to appear before her accused, face to face: "The screens were disallowed on the day, the application had gone in from me seven months earlier and I had been led to believe they were a given. The police officer who was my point of contact seemed to think they were a given. I was reassured on multiple occasions by the witness liaison staff at the familiarisation visit that I was getting a screen.
"So when I found out at lunchtime, minutes rather than hours before I was to give evidence, that I wasn't getting one - it was a car crash, it was like being shot in the back and it was devastating. I panicked, and they wanted an answer - are you going to go ahead, what are you saying are, you not going to give evidence?"
Josephine says no-one explained her options to her, or the implications her refusal to stand witness would have on the case. After a year of investigation and waiting, she says, she had no option but to go through with it and take the stand.
Giving evidence
While giving evidence Josephine was asked a question which led her to reveal to the court that the man accused had previously been in prison. It was on the basis of this 'prejudicial' disclosure the trial was stopped.
While she says she had never been told that she could not discuss the man's criminal history in front of the jury, the Crown prosecutor overseeing the case accused her of "deliberately disclosing" the detail.
Josephine told Channel 4 News: "I was offered no explanation as to why the trial had been stopped - I wasn't even informed that the trial had stopped, and certainly wasn't given any reasons from the CPS. And because of the way I'd been treated by the police during the trial day that I attended, I had completely lost confidence in the police and the in the barrister for the CPS.
"When things began to go wrong and I was told I wouldn't be coming in the next day - I began to feel that I was no longer being treated as a vulnerable victim and witness, but as a problem."
Josephine tried to get some explanation from the CPS after the case collapsed but they repeatedly told her "the case is dead." She says the CPS told her "The only way you could get a retrial is if he does it to you again."
Personal apology
In a statement, Director of Public Prosecutions at the CPS, Mr Starmer issued an apology on behalf of the CPS.
"I am extremely disappointed with the way in which this case was dealt with and I am very sorry for the distress these failings have caused the complainant. I am determined this will not happen again," he said.
Reports said that since the incident the special prosecutor who had led the case, and a CPS manager, had been removed from working on rape and sexual assault cases.
Josephine said the handling of the case had led to her suffering from depression.
"If you put your faith in the system, and then it falls apart that is bad enough but then to be blamed for it, it just leaves you feeling completely worthless that nobody cares," she said.
Josephine says she wanted to highlight problems in the system of dealing with sexual assaults, to highlight that "the police and the CPS are not working well together to ensure assaults are properly investigated and prosecuted."
The CPS apology came after a year of campaigning by Josephine's lawyers. She says she's done all she can now, but is speaking out to tell her story and give other victims hope.
"Its bad enough to be attacked, its bad enough for your life to be ruined once, its unforgiveable for them (the CPS) to allow it to happen again, at their hands."
