Prosecutions and convictions for child sexual abuse have fallen by around half in four years as victims are left waiting nearly two years for cases to be heard amid ‘increasingly long and distressing court delays’, research by a children’s charity suggests.
Data from the NSPCC shows that the combined number of prosecutions in England/Wales has dropped more than half from 6,394 to 3,025 between 2016/17 and 2020/21. Meanwhile, convictions have fallen by 45% from 4,751 down to 2,595 during the same time.
Further figures from the Ministry of Justice were provided under Freedom of Information Act. They showed that cases took longer to solve, with the average number of days between offence and completion increasing from 526 in 2017/18 to 668 by 2020/21.
According to the charity, England and Wales saw court closures in England and Wales. This was due to a decline in court staff and an insufficient number of registered intermediaries. The charity also revealed that there has been a 57% increase of police reports on child sexual abuse over five years.
In four years, the number of child sexual abuse cases and their convictions has fallen to around half (stock photo).
Dominic Raab has been urged by NSPCC to examine and reverse the decrease in convictions and prosecutions.
Anna Edmundson (NSPCC Head of Policy and Public Affairs) said, “Young victims have suffered from unimaginable trauma. Many want to share their evidence and stop perpetrators causing more damage.”
“These numbers show that young witnesses are not being given this chance and those who go to court face long delays and insufficient support which can further traumatize them.
This is completely unacceptable.
“We ask Dominic Raab for a review of the declining prosecutions and convictions, to use Victims’ Law to address the delays that affect child sexual abuse cases passing through courts and to provide better support to young victims and witnesses.
NSPCC supports increased access to specialist sexual violence advisors, who have been trained to work with children. They also support special measures like pre-recording evidence to be used in court and intermediaries that can help children give evidence.
It is calling for a guaranteed share of the £477 million received by the Ministry of Justice in the Spending Review to tackle the backlog of child sexual abuse cases, and to ensure that a proportion of the £185 million funding for Independent Sexual Violence Advisers pays for ‘a significant number’ who are trained to work with children.
NSPCC is also calling for an increase in funding to child houses, which are centres that house a variety of specialists such as social workers and police officers.
Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said that child sexual abuse cases are among our most complex, sensitive and difficult cases. These cases are handled by specially-trained prosecutors who work closely with police officers to create the strongest possible case that meets our legal requirements.
“The last year has seen an increase in prosecuted cases by 22 percent, most of which result in a conviction.
‘We acknowledge, however, that there is still more work to be done in order to increase cases getting to court. CPS works with Government partners to resolve the challenges related to a case being brought to trial.
According to the CPS, 4,347 people were charged with child sexual abuse offenses between July 2020 and June 2021. The conviction rate was 84.2%.
In the period July 2019 to June 2020, 3,556 cases were successfully prosecuted, which resulted in an 84.4% rate of convictions.