(UK) Female Labour MPs call on PM to scrap new rape victim guidance
Source: The Guardian
Female Labour MPs call on PM to scrap new rape victim guidance
More than 100 MPs write to Boris Johnson saying guidance will lead survivors to avoid seeking therapy
Alexandra Topping and Caelainn Barr
Fri 17 Jun 2022 19.14 BST
First published on Fri 17 Jun 2022 15.33 BST
More than 100 female Labour MPs have written to Boris Johnson calling on him to scrap new guidance on pre-trial therapy for rape victims, which they say will make it less likely they will get the vital therapy they need.
Led by the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, MPs including Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner and Jess Phillips argue that the new rules “will cause many survivors to avoid seeking therapy, and make it more likely that cases will collapse when the prolonged stress of waiting for trials becomes too much”.
The move would allow a defendant’s legal team to access and use rape victims’ therapy notes in court proceedings if they thought it was “relevant”, rather than only in cases where it would undermine a case, they argue. The proposal was criticised by the victim’s commissioner for England and Wales Vera Baird, who said it “made things worse” for rape victims.
Thornberry said: “It’s hard enough at the moment for rape victims as it is, without them having to choose between getting help with their mental health and justice. That seems to us to be a grave problem.”
The majority of rape cases are closed when victims drop out of the criminal justice system. ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/17/female-labour-mps-call-on-pm-boris-johnson-scrap-rape-victim-therapy-guidance
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