In the eight years since her daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered by a paedophile, Sara Payne has become a familiar figure in British public life. In January she was appointed to the post of Victims’ Champion, a new independent public voice for victims of and witnesses to crime.

This summer Home Secretary Alan Johnson invited her “to undertake a short piece of work on rape as part of the consultation exercise on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)”. This is in conjunction with Baroness Stern’s independent review, due to be completed by next February, into the way rape complaints are handled by public authorities in England and Wales. Baroness Stern is examining the whole process of a rape complaint from the moment a rape is first disclosed until the court has reached a verdict.

The Victims’ Champion has now published her report. Specifically she was asked to consider the factors that influence a rape victim to report to the police, what factors influence a rape victim to withdraw from the criminal justice system post report, and what could be done to improve the overall satisfaction of victims with the service they receive from the criminal justice system. Her report, which is based on focus groups with adult women rape victims as well as expert groups of police, prosecutors and specialists in sexual violence, highlights the inconsistent treatment of rape victims by different criminal justice agencies. The evidence shows that most victims are attacked in private, by someone known to them, and injuries are not common. But victims face a culture of disbelief from the police, who are still refusing to take complaints of rape seriously if the victims come from “the wrong part of town”, if they have been drinking or if they have made previous allegations.

Victims want to be believed when they disclose they have been raped. They commonly asked themselves whether they were to blame, whether they would be believed if they reported, and felt that a trial was effectively an assessment by a jury of whether they were lying or not. “I have not heard these views expressed about any other offence and certainly cannot imagine similar thoughts or feelings entering the head of a victim of burglary, for example”. The women she spoke to were clear that if they are not treated with dignity when first reporting rape, it is unlikely they would continue to support a prosecution. “Victims frequently expressed anger that their place in the criminal justice system is effectively as a witness in their own case. Many were disappointed that the prosecution represents the Crown, rather than the victim, in contrast to the defendant who has his own legal representation”. She makes a number of recommendations in her report, including better training for police and the Crown Prosecution Service, improvements to the quantity and quality of Sexual Assault Referral Centres and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers, improved information to victims when the prosecution decides a case will not proceed, and an awareness campaign to challenge public attitudes to rape and other forms of sexual violence.

And action already. The ‘Guardian’ this week reports that the country’s first dedicated rape intelligence unit has been set up within the Metropolitan police, promising to identify and track down serial attackers. A unit of officers trained in techniques usually used to tackle organised crime and terrorism, with an additional budget of £1.4m, will become part of what Scotland Yard says is now the biggest rape investigation squad in the world. Responding to widespread criticism earlier this year when shocking failings in investigating serial rapists were exposed, the Met says it has revolutionised and raised the status of its rape inquiry unit.

The full text of Sara Payne’s report ‘Rape: The Victim Experience Review’ is at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/vawg-rape-review/rape-victim-experience.pdf?view=Binary