Written evidence submitted by Ending Victimisation & Blame (VAW 0011)

●        The adequacy of the response of the police, prosecution and judiciary to Violence Against Women and Girls.

1. EVB welcomes the Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Violence Against Women and Girls. Our organisation has considerable experience in the response by police, prosecution and judiciary in relation to Violence Against Women and Girls, with our focus being on women and children who have been failed by these services. This deficiency is often due to a lack of understanding of the root causes of Violence Against Women and Girls, and a failure to recognise the impact Domestic & Sexual Violence and Abuse has on those who experience it.

2. The Human Rights Act 1998[1] incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK domestic law. Articles of the Convention include: the right not to be treated in an inhuman and degrading way; the right to respect for private and family life (including the right to physical and psychological integrity) and the right to life. This submission will show how police, prosecution and judiciary failures result in human rights’ breaches for women and girls who experience domestic & sexual violence and abuse.

3. In 2012/13, 53% of female victims of homicide aged 16 or over were killed by their partner/ex-partner (76 homicides). In 2011/12, the proportion of female victims killed by a partner/ex-partner was 61% (90 homicides).[2] Sadly, police, prosecution and judiciary failures in cases of violence against women and girls can sometimes be fatal.

4. Cassandra (Cassie) Hasanovic[3] was killed by her estranged husband in front of their two young children in July 2008. The inquest found that Kent Police, Sussex Police and Crown Prosecution Service all failed to take appropriate steps in order to safeguard Cassie’s life. Sussex Police failed to escort Cassie to a women’s refuge on the day she died, despite her asking them to escort her because she was in fear of what her estranged husband may do.

5. Andrew Cairns stabbed to death 23-month-old Auden, along with his pregnant mother Rachael Slack, before turning the knife on himself in Holbrook in June 2010. The inquest into the killing of Rachael and Auden[4] found that a number of failings by Derbyshire Police contributed to their deaths.

6. The recent HMIC Rape Monitoring Report[5] showed wide disparities with regard to the reporting of rape. In some areas, women who report rape risk encountering an police force who list reported rapes as ‘No Crime’ in 33% of cases (Lincolnshire), versus 4% of cases in another area (South Wales and Cumbria). The national average for ‘No Crime’ results in rape cases is 12%. Disparities such as this result in a ‘postcode lottery’ for women reporting rape.

7. A recent report by the Iranian & Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation[6] found more than one in five police forces in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland failed to flag and provide data for both so-called Honour Based Violence (HBV) incidents and crimes reported in 2012. It was therefore not possible to establish the scale of HBV reported in 2012. The report also found significant variation in how so-called honour based violence is interpreted; some forces include Forced Marriage and others do not; for example, the Metropolitan Police record Forced Marriage under a separate category. The lack of a national strategy to end violence against women and girls is apparent here; tolerating a lack of will to end violence against women and children must not continue, especially in cases that particularly affect marginalised women.

8. A recent investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism[7], drawing on unpublished material from the Metropolitan Police, shows how rape has been effectively decriminalised for marginalised women. Ella* was orally and vaginally raped and presented to A&E, with her sister Beth*, the following day. Ella has communication difficulties and autism. The police and A&E staff failed to follow correct procedures in Ella’s case, which meant she was not assessed as a vulnerable adult. As a result of this failure, she was interviewed alone by the police. As Ella was unable to communicate clearly, the police decided she had only had oral sex and so did not refer her to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre in the area, persisting in failing to adhere to local procedures. The man in question was interviewed by the police, but as he claimed that the sexual activity was consensual, the police took no further action. The police told Beth that they couldn’t put Ella through the courts as she was a vulnerable person. In this case, it is clear that Ella’s rape has effectively been decriminalised, due to the failure by professional services and the inability of the court system to provision adequate and appropriate services for those with additional needs.

*pseudonym

9. In August 2013, Neil Wilson was prosecuted for sexual activity with a child and making indecent images of a child. Wilson pleaded guilty to these crimes, and during the sentencing hearing, the prosecution barrister Robert Colover presented the case for the Crown in order for sentence to be determined by Judge Nigel Peters. Colover stated that the girl in question was ‘predatory in all her actions’[8] and Judge Peters expressed his view that the 13 year old child had been ‘predatory and was egging on’ the 41 year old man. The judge accepted this as mitigation and adjusted his sentence accordingly.

10. These examples are a snapshot of how crimes against women and children (most often girls) are dealt with in the UK. We hear how ‘lessons will be learned’ by professional services, but it is unclear how it is possible for the lessons to be learned if we do not acknowledge the reason for failure in the first place. Failures by professional services are recorded in a way that allows them to be explained as isolated incident(s) within a particular organisation, rather than examples of systemic failure across the Criminal Justice System (CJS). We require evidence of how services will improve, how the lessons will be learned and what process and personnel changes are taking place in order to facilitate the required improvement. The CJS must evidence how it intends to improve in order to reduce the failure rate, and we must hold the services (and government departments responsible for them) to account.  In a time of decreasing budgets, it is important to ring fence funding for training and awareness-raising of the root causes of domestic & sexual violence and abuse. Alongside this, we must increase awareness of victims’ needs and how best to support women and children experiencing abuse, in order that the common mistakes we see in these cases do not continue to be repeated.

11. We note that “Governments that agree to be bound by the Convention[9] will have to do the following:                            

1. train professionals in close contact with victims;
2. regularly run awareness-raising campaigns;
3. take steps to include issues such as gender equality and non-violent conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships in teaching material;
4. set up treatment programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence                                           and for sex offenders;
5. work closely with NGOs;
6. involve the media and the private sector in eradicating gender                                           stereotypes and promoting mutual respect.”

12. We note use of the word ‘culture’ as an area of concern for this select committee. We would suggest that acknowledging the culture of institutional disbelief and ignorance that has been allowed to manifest itself within Criminal Justice System is a crucial function of this Select Committee. The shared values, beliefs and behaviours of police, prosecution and judiciary do not demonstrate significant understanding of the issues facing women and children who have experienced domestic and sexual violence and abuse. This is compounded by government funding cuts, and in some cases, elimination of funding altogether for crucial services both for the professionals working within these services, such as training and skills development, and for the women and children who will continue to rely on these services to safeguard them in the event that they are exposed to men’s violence.

13. With funding for Violence Against Women and Girls services being reduced or cut, it is clear that the government will be unable to sign the Istanbul Convention without a significant increase in funding for preventative and responsive services, education, training and awareness-raising campaigns. Government must work to address this issue, which will mean parliamentarians acknowledging the issue of men’s violence against women and children and providing adequate funding to ensure services can both support women and children who have experienced domestic & sexual violence and abuse and work towards preventing further violence by addressing gender inequality in the UK.

We would welcome the opportunity to speak to the Inquiry panel in more depth about our knowledge of these issues.

March 2014