Victims of stalking and domestic abuse could be able to appeal 'lenient' prison sentences

Anti-domestic violence campaigners claim new rules amount to ‘tweaking at the edges’ of current system

Maya Oppenheim
Women's Correspondent
Wednesday 14 August 2019 19:23 BST
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However a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice could not confirm any timeframe for when the new measures would be introduced
However a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice could not confirm any timeframe for when the new measures would be introduced

Victims of stalking, domestic abuse and child abuse could be given new legal rights to challenge unduly lenient sentences handed to their perpetrators.

They have previously been stopped from taking cases to the Court of Appeal because such offences are not included in a statutory scheme which provides victims with a legal right to challenge “unduly lenient” sentences.

This has meant victims of stalking, domestic abuse and child abuse have not been able to ask the Attorney General to review any prison term.

However, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice could not confirm any timeframe for when the new measures would be introduced.

They said: “It is vital the public and victims have confidence that serious offenders will serve sentences which properly reflect the severity of their crimes.

“We have committed to reviewing the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, which allows victims, family members and the public to request the review of certain sentences, and this is currently under consideration”.

The Ministry of Justice is also contemplating calls for a new legal duty on prosecutors to notify victims about the scheme after some were left oblivious to the fact they were able to challenge a lenient sentence.

Victims only have 28 days after sentencing to ask the Attorney General to review a prison term.

Figures obtained by the BBC under Freedom of Information laws show the unduly lenient sentence scheme received requests to increase 3,499 crown court sentences in England and Wales between 2015 and 2018.

Only 643 of these ended up at the Court of Appeal with 478 – 14 per cent of the total – resulting in harsher punishments.

Around a third of all requests, 1,148, were dismissed outright due to the crimes that were committed not being eligible for review.

Rebecca Hitchen, of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said: “While we support the proposed broadening out of this mechanism that allows victims to challenge unduly lenient sentencing, in reality, this will be relevant to such a minority of cases.

“We know so few cases ever reach trial, let alone conviction and sentencing. Victims and survivors are being failed at every point of the criminal justice system and if anything this feels like tweaking at the edges when what is needed is proper investment and an overhaul of criminal justice system when it comes to violence against women and girls.

“We also need to ask – how widely will this be made known to victims given the narrow timeframe that applies? And instead of solely relying on the victim to make a challenge, what efforts are the judiciary making to educate themselves more on the impacts and harm of these offences so that sentencing is more consistent and reflective of their serious nature?”

The CPS has faced fierce criticism for the recent drop in prosecutions for rape – with campaigners accusing prosecutors of failing rape victims “at every stage” after recent figures revealed the time taken to charge suspects has more than doubled in the past seven years.

Government figures show there was a 23 per cent drop in the number of rape cases taken on by the CPS in the 12 months to 2017-18, despite a 16 per cent increase in police-recorded rape over the same period.

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