The chairwoman of the bar council, Maura McGowan QC, has called for anonymity until conviction for men accused of rape. Women (and victims are overwhelmingly women and children) who report rape are granted anonymity, so why not afford the same protection to those they accuse?
Because it is not the same. Rape remains uniquely stigmatising for the victim – in many countries rape is still treated as a stain on family honour, and some victims are even killed. While the anti-rape movement has improved public attitudes in Britain – and they are being further shaken right now in India and elsewhere – the conviction rate remains shamefully low. Only 6.5% of reported rapes end in a rape conviction.
Although it is now acknowledged that rape is a particularly traumatic form of violence, in court a rape victim’s character remains fair game for defence barristers. The victim has no one to defend her from the most intimate questioning; she is merely a witness for an often incompetent and indifferent Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). And while the law is supposed to protect her from irrelevant questioning on her sexual history, “belief in consent” is a permissible defence, and bias among judges is common.
photo credit: Ted & Dani Percival via photopin cc