U-turn on anonymity for rape defendants
A LAW to ban the naming of rape suspects is to be ditched by the Ministry of Justice after a storm of protest from MPs and women’s groups. They said it could deter women reporting the crime and hinder police investigations.
Instead ministers are considering watered-down proposals to tighten the newspaper Code of Conduct.
A senior source said the proposal was in its early stages but ministers wanted to talk to the Press Complaints Commission to see whether a voluntary agreement could be reached on the pre-charge reporting of rape suspects.
The source said: “The most sensible way forward would be down the non-legislative route because of the great complexity of changing the law in this area.
“We always said we would examine all options and we don’t think the legislative route is the most sensible way of achieving the desired outcome. We are now considering the PCC route. We are not committed to that yet but that is what we are looking at.”
In 2004, the PCC issued guidelines to editors after calls for a ban on pre-charge naming of rape suspects in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were defeated in Parliament.
Justice Minister Crispin Blunt said there was a widespread assumption those guidelines recommended anonymity for anyone accused of a crime but not yet charged. He told MPs: “On closer examination, however, the 2004 note does not provide complete reassurance. Nowhere does it contain an outright general prohibition on the reporting of pre-charge allegations.”
The loophole, which ministers will now try to close, has allowed the media to name a string of high profile sports and television stars accused of rape before being charged with any crime.
The controversial plan for ban on naming men accused of rape did not appear in either the Conservative nor the Lib Dems’ election manifestos. The Lib Dems, however, passed a motion at the 2006 conference calling for the identity of rape defendants to be protected until they were convicted.
When the idea resurfaced in the coalition Government agreement it provoked anger, prompting ministers to quickly backpedal to protection only until charge rather than conviction.
More than 50 women’s groups and rape counselling charities wrote to ministers warning the proposal sent out the wrong message to victims. Shadow Minister Maria Eagle said singling out one offence left Ministers “in danger of sending a clear signal to victims: you will not be believed”.
Conservative backbenchers also rounded on the idea during a debate in the Commons last week. Broxtowe’s Conservative MP Anna Soubry said the last time the idea was tried it resulted in “a legal quagmire and a mess” and to single out one crime sent out “a devastating message to victims of rape”.
She added: “No one seems able to explain why we need to give rape suspects anonymity in the first place,” Anonymity for rape suspects was scrapped by the previous Conservative government in 1988, following its introduction 12 years earlier.
Mr Blunt denied the number of false complaints against men had prompted the proposal but did concede pre-charge anonymity could “frustrate” police investigations. While an estimated 90 per cent of women never report rape, the number of false allegations is thought to be around 10 per cent.
The climbdown tops off another difficult week for the Ministry of Justice which was overruled by Downing Street on Thursday for suggesting a ban on prison parties could be repealed.
