Thousands of extra prosecutions for child sex abuse in England and Wales are expected following the introduction of new guidelines designed to ensure that victims are more likely to be believed by police and prosecutors when they first raise the alarm.
These follow an inquiry into the way BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile escaped jail for decades because victims did not come forward, or were not believed when they did did so, despite a wealth of evidence about his inappropriate behaviour towards children.
In future, teams of specially-trained prosecutors and lawyers will handle cases, while both they and police will be expected to "focus on the credibility of the allegation" rather than on "the perceived weaknesses" of the victim, under the guidelines announced yesterday by director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer.
Negative judgments
He said that too often negative judgments were made about people who came forward with allegations if they "did not tell their story right the first time, or if they had problems with drugs or drink".
In some cases police dismissed allegations once they learned that the person making the allegations had returned to the care of the alleged abuser “even though this could be seen as supporting the allegations”, rather than the other way around.
In the wake of the disclosures about Savile, dozens of people came forward with similar accounts, saying they would have done so years earlier had they known then that others had made allegations.
In future, some information can be shared: “There is no rule which prevents victims being told that they are not the only ones to have made a complaint.”
Such information could “strengthen their resolve”, the guidelines state, but this should “usually” only happen after an alleged victim has told their story for the first time.