To: The Rt Hon. Lord Richard Hermer KC

Cc: The Attorney General's Office

The promise of justice for victims of rape in the UK is currently a hollow one. My daughter’s experience, following her report of a rape in 2023, has revealed a legal system that is not only failing to protect victims but is actively facilitating their re-traumatisation.

Despite the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) acknowledging the assault through an evidence-based award of compensation, the subsequent criminal trial was a catalogue of procedural and ethical failures. The case was delayed three times, twice on the day of the trial, causing immense psychological strain. Furthermore, the gravity of the proceedings was underscored by the fact that within months of my daughter's assault a second woman also reported the same man for the same crime of rape, with both testimonies presented to the jury.

When the trial finally commenced this May, the defence strategy focused on weaponising my daughter’s response to her trauma. Her decision to publicly support the charity Rape Crisis, and to pursue academic research into rape culture, was presented to the jury as evidence of ulterior motives—a chilling suggestion that a victim’s desire to understand or address her experience is proof of a manufactured narrative.

The acquittal that followed was compounded by two systemic failures. First, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed in its statutory duty to inform the victim that the defendant’s bail conditions had been adjusted. Second, the acquittal was compounded by the way the burden of proof was framed. Where physical evidence is limited, the standard of being 'sure' is frequently weaponised by the defence to encourage jurors to demand an impossible level of 'absolute certainty.' This effectively moves the goalposts, making it nearly impossible for a jury to convict in cases that rely on the vital, yet dismissed, testimony of victims.

When the legal system treats victim advocacy as a character flaw and fails to maintain basic transparency, the result is not justice, but a secondary assault. We need an urgent review of how victims are treated in court and a rigorous examination of why the current system is so profoundly skewed against those who come forward.

Yours, not particularly faithfully,

Clare Walker

Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK