This is Criminal Justice Matters – the podcast series from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) of England and Wales.
Cases concerning rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) take up a significant amount of time in the criminal courts and have a huge impact on people's lives. This latest series is presented by Mary Prior KC, one of the country's most experienced criminal barristers in this field and Vice Chair of the CBA.
She takes a closer look at RASSO cases through the experience of victims, defendants, lawyers, judges and other experts familiar with the justice system. She looks at how criminal justice works when it’s properly funded and the serious consequences when it isn’t.
In Episode 1, we hear from a victim of rape and the harrowing ordeal she suffered as a complainant waiting for her case to be brought to trial. We also hear from Wendy Showell Nicholas, a psychotherapist with a lifetime of experience in the field of trauma on how the system, in its current state, compounds rather than heals the psychological impact of sexual violence.
The underfunding of the system has led to a huge backlog of around 68,000 cases in the Crown Court and 380,000 in the Magistrates’ Court. The human cost of this is devastating but little is done to remedy the problem and it gets worse by the day. During the few weeks over which we recorded Episode 1, another 3000 cases joined the Crown Court backlog, and 20,000 more joined the Magistrates’ Court backlog. A greater proportion than ever concern sexual offences which now account for over 1 in 7 of cases in the Crown Court backlog; this is up from 1 in 11 just 5 years ago when the backlog was under half its current size.
We, the criminal barristers tasked with prosecuting and defending criminal cases, are working tirelessly in our courts to maintain fair trials and ensure that justice is done. Join us as we take a real-life journey through criminal justice - because Criminal Justice Matters.
Warning: This podcast includes detailed accounts of sexual violence
Criminal Justice Matters is produced on behalf of the Criminal Bar Association by Adam Batstone Media & Communications.
For any further information on issues raised in this series contact James Rossiter CBA director of Communications
tel 07985117887